ABSTRACT
Seeing the world as cause and effect does not make it any easier to predict the future. After all, cause and effect are hard to determine. Over the past year, Helena has undergone medical investigations for four different types of cancer. Her entire life is about fighting risk, something she shares with the society in which she lives. Minimising risk has become the primary function of politicians. But our risk awareness is rarely rational. We devote the greatest resources to fighting the risk of terror, despite the fact that far more people die as a result of drowning in their bathtubs. We implement time-consuming safety measures at airports in an attempt to save lives, leading more people to drive and subsequently die in road traffic accidents as a result. Risk awareness produces new risks. Risk awareness also creates a new way of looking at the world. When we see the fat around a person's stomach, we view it as more than a mass of flesh. The fat becomes a premonition of misfortune. This view of the world is no more than a few centuries old.
