Social tug of war

There's a perennial tug of war between two types of people: alarmists and procrastinators. For convenience I'm using these as neutral designations, not pejorative terms. 

In many times and places, most folks live on the edge. There is no margin for error. Little mistakes and oversights can get you killed. So you always have to think ahead. Take precautions. To survive, much less having any hope of thriving, you must be an alarmist. 

But there are other times and places where most folks lead insulated lives. The culture has a lot in reserve. Redundant capacity. Many things can go wrong before it burns through the buffer. That fosters procrastinators. 

Both temperamental types are represented in every generation because life lacks a consistent pattern. Sometimes the gamble pays off–big time. Sometimes you lose the bet–big time. Sometimes playing it safe keeps you stuck in a rut. 

Conversely, because there's so much padding, the procrastinator may get away with reckless, shortsighted behavior. Or even prosper. But sometimes it catches up with him. 

When alarmists are wrong too often, they are discounted. They cried wolf one too many times. This means people tune them out even when their warnings are justified. 

Some people are crisis-driven. They ignore warnings until it's too late. But sometimes the crisis never materializes. 

To the alarmists, the voices of reason are dangerous. They lull people into a false sense of security until disaster overtakes them. What was preventable becomes inevitable. Avoidable catastrophes become unavoidable.  

To the voices of reason, the alarmists are dangerous. They create nonexistent problems. They create an artificial crisis in their fanatical efforts to avert a crisis. 

Because life is inconsistent, there is no generally successful or unsuccessful formula. Both strategies have winners and loses. Both sides can say, "If you only listened to me, we wouldn't be in this mess!"

Adages like "better safe than sorry" or "take necessary precautions" are useless in the abstract. They provide no practical guidance without feeding some facts into them.