13 Oct 25

The “Plan”

Many among the naive are attracted to “feel-good” personal-security advice and dubious gadgets that supposedly “empower them” and instill  them with “confidence”

Yet, is it a genuine “plan,” or a cynical deception?

A sign at the entrance of a popular hiking trail reads:

“Be ‘Trail-Smart:’ Travel with a friend.  Have a cell-phone.  Be aware of your surroundings”

Among the naive are those who look at the above simplistic narrative as a legitimate “security plan”

Yet, failure to consider “matters in full” will leave hikers unprepared to confront reasonably foreseeable threats to their health, like hungry bears and machete-wielding lunatics!

An more honest and genuinely helpful sign might read: “Be ‘Trail-Smart:’ Rescue is unlikely. You’re on your own!  Go armed.  Be alert and aware.  Be ever-prepared to defend yourself with gunfire (and, carry a cell-phone too)”

The foregoing narrative is at least the beginning of a legitimate personal security plan, but you’ll never see it posted!

In the end, it is easy for officials and politicians to say, “Yes, we have a plan,” in an effort to either con people, or lull them into a erroneous sense of personal safety.

Predictably, “their plan” is ever-designed to “serve and protect” them, not you!

“If people had been as mealy-mouthed in centuries past as they are today, ‘Ivan the Terrible’ would have been ‘Ivan the Inappropriate!”’

Thomas Sowell

/John