* Aequanimitas is clarity of judgment in face of peril, a battle cry of Roman soldiers, a motto of the Johns Hopkins Department of Medicine. Sometimes I want to shout: aequanimitas cable news, aequanimitas talk radio, aequanimitas politicians, aequanimitas fellow citizens. More clarity of judgment please.
* Aequanimitas would be proportional responses to life’s risks. Between 2002 and 2013 terrorism deaths on US soil averaged 4 per year. Between 1985 and 2013 (including 9/11) such deaths averaged about 110 per year. In contrast, deaths from medical errors average more than 150,000/y, from car wrecks about 40,000/y, from gun violence about 10,000/y, and these are small compared to deaths from heart disease plus cancer 1,500,000/y or compared to total deaths 2,400,000/y. (See previous post.)
* Based on the past 30-year average, the probability of an individual American being killed on US soil by terrorism has been 1 in 22,000. Based on the past 10-year average, it is 1 in 600,000. We do not fear other hazards of such low probability. While efforts to prevent terrorism are rational, the fear stirred up by pundits for profit and by politicians for power is irrational.
* Aequanimitas would include objective discussion of xenophobic/tribal/racist/acquisitive instincts and the need to control them in service of civilization. Objective discussion seems unlikely to happen in the popular media. !!!Aequanimitas popular media!!!
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Aequanimitas "treat of socialism vs. threat of oligarchy", "second amendment intrusions versus global warming", "copays versus fully loaded cost of health care", "Terrorism versus Chinese hegemony", "Obamacare verus Citizens United".
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