Artificial Hazards

As I watched the British Open golf tournament on television this morning at the Royal St. George’s golf links (Saturday, 16 July) it was apparent that the players were having fits with the pot bunkers (sand traps) that were capturing their golf balls. These artificial hazards had vertical man-made sides made of what appeared to be railroad ties. If a ball landed too close to the sides of the bunker it required the hapless golfer to hit out sideward or even backward to escape. I’m a golfer but didn’t like the course they played this year because the hazards are not natural and are not a fair test of golf.

There are times when an artificial hazard has its place, but it is not in golf and it is not with people.

We’ve got rats this year that are infesting the county in which we live. The only way people seem to be rid of them is to put some artificial hazards in their way—rat traps. You can’t talk a rat out of doing his destruction; you need a trap or poison.

I have wondered about artificial hazards we encounter in our daily walk—that someone has put in our way. I am afraid that we are sometimes naïve to think that the only thing that impedes or curtails our happiness or progress is bad luck, economic ‘conditions,’ or poor judgments on the parts of others. Not so. In addition to our own failings we must understand that there are ‘evil and designing men’ who intentionally put artificial hazards in our path to further their desires for power and gain—at our expense.

Over fifty years ago author Vance Packard wrote a book, The Hidden Persuaders, which revealed the tactics used by industry and merchandising and advertisers to hook us into purchasing their products. Many of these inducements were not just a waste of money, but sometimes became downright deleterious to our health, happiness, and progress. So it is now.

Countless people are addicted to substances and behaviors that are killing them materially, physically, and spiritually. These things look so attractive but prove so fatal. The entire sport-fishing industry, and fishing strategy, is built on this premise: present a lure that looks desirable and enticing but that is fatal to the fish. Remember that only dead, or soon-to-be dead fish go with the flow; the strong and living fish face upstream and do their daily battle with the elements. They are discriminating in what they take into themselves. The ones that continue live and grow don’t take the lure.

The bottom line: Neither should we, regardless of whether it comes in a bottle, through cyberspace, as a political promise or the product of a plastic surgeon’s skills presenting herself to us in a tight sweater.