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...exploration and the investigation caves; hang-gliding; variations of mountaineering, rock climbing and skiing; parachuting and bungee-jumping. I have seen no offers yet for tight-wire walking across Niagara Falls, or for ten intimate minutes with a tiger in his cage. But give them time--give them time.
Such craving for danger--even for partly simulated or synthetic danger--seems to cut directly across another leading motif of our super-civilised age: the search for, not merely safety as suggested by prudent common sense, but safety guaranteed and legislated by the modern nanny state; safety of a degree unattainable in real life. Safety, as we might say, has become a "human right".
In the world of wimps we now inhabit, it is unlawful for you to take your daily exercise by cycling round the park, or for me to ride my pony down the road to the mailbox, unless we wear a helmet of approved design. (The first time I saw a person wearing one of these helmets, I understood what was meant by the expression "dickhead".)
You must be seat-belted into...
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