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THE_GREAT_CAR_THREAT

                                           February  7, 2013

I think of things in terms of US annual
car deaths, i.e. death from car crashes
(which I dislike calling "accidents").           INEVITABLE_ACCIDENTS

One of the first questions I ask when
looking at a problem is: does this
kill more or less than car crashes?

But the point of this comparison is
not (necessarily) that we should
ignore a problem if it's smaller, the         Really though, the logic is
real question in my mind is why we            more like: why is it that you
don't treat the Great Car Threat the          people can contemplate 40k+
way we do other issues.                       deaths so calmly in one case,
                                              but much smaller problems are
    Where's the War On Cars?                  causes for panics and
                                              melodramatic scenes?
    How can we let suburban zoning
    laws stand for a single day, with                      DRAMATICS
    so many lives at stake?



   This reasoning from comparisons is a tricky
   business -- almost as bad as hypothetical
   analogies -- and many people never seem to
   get the point.

       When Chomsky points out that the
       crimes of the Khmer Rouge are
       reported more heavily than the crimes
       of the Indonesian government in East
       Timor, the intended conclusion is
       not that the Khmer Rouge is okay.


                                              INVESTIGATIVE_ETHICS




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