Taking action on the coming tsunami

The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men. —Aristotle

If a gigantic tsunami was rushing towards you, would you run for your life—or just stand on the beach?

You’d run, right?

Don’t be so sure.

During the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004, many vacationers just stood on the beach and watched as the ocean receded into a monstrous wave. The locals knew better. They ran as hard as they could. But some of the foreigners stood on the beach, stared in amazement, and were engulfed in a deadly mass of water.

230,000 people died in that tsunami. Many simply because they didn’t run.

Why did they just stand there like a bunch of idiots?

Because tsunamis weren’t a normal part of life in their countries of origin. They knew they existed. They knew they happened in this part of the world. But they have never seen one.

So they underestimated its danger, and were slow to take action.

This mental state has a name: normalcy bias.

A normalcy bias is a psychological state of deni…