Signs of the Times

I have come to the conclusion that in the early part of the 21st Century there is no longer any place for what is referred to as "trial and error". It used to be part and parcel of growing up.

Against all current thinking my childhood was in an era when it was acceptable to have a go at something and fail, admit getting it wrong (or at least if it didn't kill you) and having another go using exactly the same manner or through an altogether different approach or method.

Through history you can depend on the fact that the greatest philosophies, inventions, discoveries and epoch defining events were largely attained following a long and arduous process of trial and error. The initiators of many of the achievements of the Human Race will have bombed out either in style or abject misery and not a little tragedy before our civilisation was able to benefit from ultimate success as others picked up the quest and carried it on.

I grew up in the period before the nanny-state, the ridiculous extremes of Health and Safety and the virtual eradication of most debilitating viruses and infections.

My early years in the 1960's were lived in effect in a Petrie dish of afflictions such as rubella, whooping cough, tuberculosis, scarlet fever, smallpox and polio not to mention the side effects of what were pedalled as wonder drugs to assist mothers in pregnancy and just drugs for those feckless parents and guardians who indulged in those promiscuous and anything goes years.

We were intentionally exposed to mumps and measles which spread like wildfire through our contemporaries in order to build up our immunity and resistance. There were no widely available household substances that could kill up to 99% of all known germs in those days.

When able to get about under my own power and determination it was very much a matter of trial and error to see what tree was the safest to climb or fall out of, how fast you could pedal a tricycle down a hill without touching the brakes, how far you could swim out into the local river before getting into difficulties and what fruit scrumped from the gardens in the area was edible and what was poisonous.

I stuck my thumb into the electrical socket of the Christmas Tree lights just to see if I would get a jolting shock. I did.

I ran my electric toy train for about an hour to see if it would overheat and catch fire. It did.

I let go of my bike at speed with my little sister on it to see if she had natural balance and technique. She did not and fractured her skull in the process. Sorry our Susan.

I held on to a lighted match to see how short a burnt stub I could get. I learned that the smell of scorched flesh and hair is amongst one of the worst you can experience.

I dismantled a shotgun cartridge and left a trail of gunpowder along my bedroom window cill. It ignited and cut a long ugly swath through the woodwork and by this I came to know that a grey and seemingly innocuous powder has great explosive capabilities.

We were encouraged to try, try and try again. The moralistic story of Robert the Bruce and his observations of the endurance of the cave dwelling spider was one on which was placed great emphasis by our elders in the telling of it as a bedtime story, at school assembly or when being told off for not displaying what was called "backbone". Underdogs were held in high esteem even if with hindsight they were stupid and futile.

Failure but after a bit of an effort was typically character forming and applauded for all of that.

How things have now changed.

The culture of the 21st Century and particularly in childhood is sanitised, apparently risk free and with no margin whatsoever for trial and error. Our health and safety are taken as being assured even at the cost of the loss of any common sense approach to a potentially hazardous predicament in which we may find ourselves. There is a fear ,amongst those who would want to encourage adventure and an intrepid spirit, of being sued for negligence or malpractice. Risk assessment is a big wealthy industry and leaves no room for any free thought or inspired judgement.

As an unfortunate and downright heartbreaking consequence of this regime is that our children are not allowed to find value in play and discover for themselves the joys and tribulations of life.

It is sadly now very much a situation in reverse. Error and Trial.