by Hans Tholstrup, farmer, futurist, Australian legend

Adventure and the right to do it
Many say that adventure is no longer allowed and society is against it and that might be true, but without it we give up personal freedom, encourage complacency and allow the nanny state to take over completely.

That is definitely not good for society as it breeds robots, social welfare users, alcohol and other abuse be it legal or not, and yes food is a drug too, well at least the junk food.

Life is meant to be a “natural” high, not induced by non-natural substances, or mental problems induced by boredom. Those who read The Dice Man would understand my drift. (The Dice Man was a book that described living by dice. Whatever you did was decided by a roll of the dice. And eventually he killed someone who upset him as the dice said to do so. And that was the end of him.)

Voluntary risk-taking versus forced risk-spreading that burdens taxpayers
So yes I want total freedom to do as you please when it harms no one but just you, and that brings me to the high cost of rescue as we saw in the southern ocean with Mr Bullimore and yes he was alive and it was not his first misadventure.

I personally think that if you go out for adventure you have no rights to enter into the normal rescue service we have for people doing their work in a normal field be they risky or not, like the fisherman who battles the elements constantly to bring us fresh fish.

Dick Smith asked me to speak to a man who had given it 3 goes to crossing the Bass Strait as he now wanted to give it a further try. I did and soon found that he was seemingly well-prepared and should make it. He told me he had given up 3 times due to wild weather, so I asked him if he was happy to die?

I suppose he found the question strange. I said, yes, are you quite happy to simply just die out there? I never did get an answer. And I told him why he had to be happy to die, as it was quite possible as he was on his own. And the only way to be sure not to panic is to be content with what happens.

He never did try again and he did not call back. I am pleased he did not try again as he would not have survived a problem out there, and yes maybe he would have activated his e perp and been rescued, and maybe the helicopter had had a malfunction and the crew had died in the ocean.

Mind you every crew that enters into a rescue is well aware of the risk and, like the adventurer who does it for purely selfish high, they do it for the highest reward there is: to save another.

So should that person who does it for selfish reasons – or her/his style of a natural high expect to be rescued by the public purse? NO they should not, any more than a contact sport person ending up in a wheel chair should expect the public to pay. I have no idea if they have their own insurance, and I am not interested as there are plenty of others who have nothing better to do.

I used to break something every time I went skiing in Switzerland and yes I had insurance as you get noting for free in Switzerland as it should be.

But it is not just a matter of adventure, when a drunk smashes their car they get no insurance, as it should be, so why is it that we now have more people killed in cars due to the phone that we don’t have the same rule for? A local lad was just killed by a texting person on drugs and no license, so I am sure he had no insurance either.

Yes, user-pays and responsibility is the best way to save.

The best safety device in a car is a responsible driver, a driver who has to pay if he misbehaves like the adventurer should.

Affordable safety
The best thing Dick Smith ever said: affordable safety.

Yes, we can make things safer in aviation, that is his passion; but what is the point if no one can afford the fares?

Yet he is pushing hard for changes at present; they are not expensive changes in the digital world, common sense say that they should be done.

But it is easier to ban things like base-jumping and other extreme sports.

I say remove the air bag and put in a 6 inch spike, as u would get very careful drivers, but that is silly. However, it is not silly to allow adventure and let them do whatever they like within the rule of doing no harm to others, only themselves.

And it is perfectly Darwinian to let the fools die; after all they should not breed in the perfect world.

And like Darwin who liked the natural evolution that makes things better, I also say stop the welfare as it is making us go backwards.

Like they say in the zoo and in national parks, “Don’t feed the animals.”