Safety is the new Sanctity?

[hakerh]

Ekk and I have been doing a lot of musing lately about safety regulations and insurance in various historical recreation and mundane venues. Ekk is Merganser's representative to a new 18th century naval and maritime reenactors' group in Northeastern North America (which sounds a lot more impressive than it is, though there are 40-something groups

Comments

[tchipakkan]

I don't think that the SCA's insurance is ever represented as other than covering the SCA against lawsuits. There may have been some confusion because people like the idea of insurance for individuals, and assumed that if it was required that's what it was for. The LHA (Living History Association) once offered insurance for individuals and or groups for activities at events, but I don't know if that's gone the way of the dodo. Probably. For that kind of insurance you'd have to get an insurance company to actually figure out what the risks were, which they wouldn't bother doing unless they thought they would make money by offering the policy. Their estimates would probably be weighed heavily toward their making money- just in case anyone did get hurt, and policy holder costs would only go down if there were thousands of them demanding and proving that the costs were way out of line.
The thing with insurance is based on (as I frequently rant) the theory that the world can be made safe for idiots. It can't, that's what the Darwin Awards are based on. Insuramce is just betting against yourself- I probably won't get sick/have an accident, and I can't afford to save against all potential disasters, but I can afford to give money to this company on the off chance that it happens. The company figures out the average risks, pads it with enough to cover its own expenses and make a profit, and that's what you pay. Built into this is a bumch of deal breakers that basically say- we aren't going to cover you if you are egregiously stupid- (or if it's something we think you won't notice getting excluded when you glance over the policy)- that will saye the insurnace company a lot of money!)
I tend to think that it's not so much Insurance as Medicine that's the universal modern religion, and insurance is just one of the ritual adjuncts to it. After all, Medicine has its houses of worship (hospitals), Priests (doctors), special language, demands that you believe whatever the priests say or they won't deal with you, it's heresies (especially alternative medicines). Belief is so much more of a factor in medicine. Insurance only pays for it.