History suggests that the disillusioned and the disaffected do not readily take to the streets nor man the barricades to defend a system that failed to defend them.
David OlusogaRead
The primitive fight-or-flight regions of our mammalian brains react to immediate danger. We instinctively run from an avalanche but the gradual retreat of a glacier, the portent of the far greater danger of rising temperatures and rising oceans, just doesn't get through to us in the same way.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Our brains respond quickly to immediate threats but struggle with gradual dangers like climate change.
David Olusoga's quote highlights the human instinct to react to immediate physical threats, such as an avalanche, while failing to adequately respond to slow-building crises like climate change. It illustrates the challenge of perceiving and addressing gradual dangers, which can often feel less urgent and therefore less impactful on our emotions and actions, despite their potential for catastrophic consequences.
Themes
Climate ChangeDangerInstinctEnvironmentAwareness
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about climate awareness, one could use this quote to emphasize the importance of recognizing slow-moving threats.
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Black history is a series of missing chapters from British history. I'm trying to put those bits back in.
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We nonchalantly expect that next year's smartphone will be faster and better than this year's, yet we struggle to imagine that society and our lives could progress at anything like the pace at which technology advances and we meekly accept it when things go backwards.
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Our national history cannot be national if, in the near future, one in three young adults feels their stories remain untold, if this country's long global history of empire and interconnections is marginalised and if the historical reality of race is rendered almost invisible.
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