Safety can bring you into contact with reality or take you out of it. When the desire to feel safe becomes stronger than the desire to see clearly, we construct narratives that make us comfortable rather than informed. Joe illustrates this with a base jumping scenario: wanting to feel safe because you don’t want to disappoint your group might lead you to dissociate from real risks.
The same dynamic plays out in boardrooms. If nobody is willing to feel through the consequences of a difficult decision—laying off someone they’re personally attached to, acknowledging a failing strategy—they’ll gravitate toward stories about why everything is fine. “We’re actually going to be fine because XYZ” becomes the comfortable narrative that replaces clear seeing.
“Safety can become an idea that we use to stop seeing reality so that we feel comfortable.”
The base jumping community sees this in identity formation: “I’m a safe jumper” or “that’s not a safe kind of jump” are stories that replace the harder question: “What are the risks, and how does my organism interact with this environment given these conditions?” The label of “safe” shuts down inquiry. The same happens when a company labels a strategy “safe” instead of honestly assessing risk.
Related Concepts
- Dissociation as double-edged sword
- Avoidance of fear invites the feared outcome
- Optimism and pessimism both avoid reality
- Safety is an illusion—it means feeling comfortable, not being objectively safe
- The belief ‘I’ll be unsafe’ anchors other limiting beliefs
- Seeing through worst-case consequences creates freedom to act