This is the message of Safety (https://www.national-accident-helpline.co.uk/news/12-hazards-of-christmas). For Safety, it’s not the ‘12 days of Christmas’ but the ‘12 hazards of Christmas’. Only Safety could warp a message like this and talk about ‘Festive Fear’. Thank god we have the National Accident Helpline in the UK to keep us focused on fear, anxiety and safety at Christmas.
Apparently, being focused on ‘Festive Fear’ leads to a ‘happy trouble-free Christmas’. Such language actually works in the opposite.
The more one talks about fear, pressure, anxiety, risk and harm, the more these take effect to ensure you don’t focus on festivity, joy, fun and pleasure.
In this article we have the National Accident Helpline construct a so called ‘survey’ to demonstrate the fixation with fear and projections of ‘seasonal stress’. Of course, the survey doesn’t disclose methodology nor method, common to most propaganda (https://safetyrisk.net/why-deliver-outcomes-when-propaganda-will-do/).
How easy to pull out statistics to prove an assumption to empower a few memes and slogans, hiding a real agenda.
And look at some of those vital statistics (https://www.national-accident-helpline.co.uk/news/12-hazards-of-christmas ) they trot out: burnt turkeys, falls, burns and injuries at sales. And once these statistics are done there are all the Christmas Safety Tips you can read. All telling and lecturing as if Christmas doesn’t have its own culture that overrides safety thinking. With over 50 ‘tips’ I can be sure that no-one will give a ‘toss’ about safety.
If you want to be ineffective in safety, just give people excessive checklists so they can turn people off to safety.
And look out, when Safety gets anxious, you can be sure a safety crusader is not far away.
Of course, all of this is cultural, with pictures of cars sliding on ice, children in thick parkas and snow on gutters, how does this have any connection with an Australian Christmas?
Want to know a risk at Christmas in Australia? Drowning, shark attack and sunburn! But with millions swimming in the sea, pools and rivers, and the chance of shark attack at 5,000,000:1, why ruin a great day at the beach with fear. Risk Makes Sense (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/risk-makes-sense/).
If you’re in the USA, Christmas fear is the least of your worries. When you have conspiracy anti-vaxxers in the Department of Health demanding to stop polio vaccines (https://edition.cnn.com/2024/12/13/health/kennedy-lawyer-fda-polio-vaccine/index.html) you’ll find out quickly what a nightmare it is to elect morons to office (https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2024/12/06/nx-s1-5218574/rfk-vaccines-anti-vaccine-infectious-disease). Now there’s a Christmas present for the USA that puts petty Christmas risks into perspective.
But this is safety, why would perspective matter. Christmas fear in the face of 40,000 deaths to gun violence gives one perspective about what battles Safety should be fighting. And with vaccines gone, child deaths will be in the millions.
BTW, at no time or place in my house do we think of safety, harm or stress when it comes to Christmas. We think of joy, family, food, drink, happiness, fun and being together.
Dr Rob Long
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