I suspect most people think that Bad Stuff happens to other people, and by and large, statistically, they're probably right -- more things happen to Other People In General than happen to you, simply because there are more of them. But you'd have to walk around with your eyes closed to fail to notice that violent crimes happen in Cambridge all the time -- it's a reasonable-sized city with a huge transient population (students and tourists) and a fairly large gap between average earnings and cost of living, so it would be more surprising if it didn't have its fair share of Bad Stuff.
I mean, I'm not advocating going around reminding oneself of this all the time, because that way lies total paranoia; but I don't see how it's possible not to be aware of it.
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Date: 2005-01-19 12:16 pm (UTC)I suspect most people think that Bad Stuff happens to other people, and by and large, statistically, they're probably right -- more things happen to Other People In General than happen to you, simply because there are more of them. But you'd have to walk around with your eyes closed to fail to notice that violent crimes happen in Cambridge all the time -- it's a reasonable-sized city with a huge transient population (students and tourists) and a fairly large gap between average earnings and cost of living, so it would be more surprising if it didn't have its fair share of Bad Stuff.
I mean, I'm not advocating going around reminding oneself of this all the time, because that way lies total paranoia; but I don't see how it's possible not to be aware of it.