Risk and Culture: An Essay on the Selection of Technical and Environmental Dangers

Rating:
Summary: From which it follows that....
Review: According to the NYT review "Offering what they call a cultural theory of risk perception, the authors suggest that peoples complaints about hazards should never be taken at face value. One must look further to discover what forms of social organization are being defended or attacked."

Applying this logic, we have to ask what Mary Douglas and Wildavsky have to gain from advancing this argument...and their consistently dismissive and condescending attitude toward environmentalists makes this fairly clear. If your unenlightened opposition INSISTS on talking about certain risks AS IF that was what REALLY mattered then you are, of course, completely justified in disregarding their point of view, (and for that matter them) entirely.

Now THAT's a payoff...