The Dangers of Too Much Safety

At the time, Leopold believed fewer wolves would mean a paradise of more deer for hunters. But after witnessing that “green fire” die, he began to realize the hidden dangers of trying to make the world completely safe and tame. He most explicitly addressed this theme in the essay’s final paragraph:

We all strive for safety, prosperity, comfort, long life, and dullness…A measure of success in this is all well enough, and perhaps is a requisite to objective thinking, but too much safety seems to yield only danger in the long run. Perhaps this is behind Thoreau's dictum: In wildness is the salvation of the world. Perhaps this is the hidden meaning in the howl of the wolf…

Of course there are times when safety should be paramount. For example, protecting human life should obviously take precedence over corporate profit. 

But Leopold’s deeper point remains profoundly relevant:

Too much safety can become dangerous in its own way.

Think about the kind of life many people unconsciously drift toward.

A stable but uninspiring career. Endless optimization of comfort and convenience. Days spent indoors, staring at screens, insulated from uncertainty, discomfort, nature, and even other people.

On paper, such a life can look remarkably safe and successful.

Yet extensive research suggests that cutting ourselves off from challenge, uncertainty, meaningful risk, nature, and genuine human connection is often terrible for our physical and psychological health. 

Our bodies weaken. 

Our minds dull. 

Our hearts harden.

Our souls freeze.

Most of us assume we would never deliberately choose such a life. Yet many of us gradually create one anyway. 

Much like reintroducing wolves into degraded ecosystems has yielded surprising environmental benefits, reintroducing some uncertainty, risk, and challenge into our own lives can revive parts of ourselves that have quietly become stale and dormant.

Sometimes the path out of feeling stuck is not greater safety and certainty.

Sometimes it is rediscovering a little wildness, and even a little danger.