Imagine a Ming vase, a priceless historical artifact that you, so fortunately, have come to possess.
But it is in China.
If you want to get it back home safely, you must protect it. But how? It’s so fragile.
One option is to carry it yourself, never let it out of your safe and loving arms. But that is impractical.
Traditional wisdom says you should pack it in a box with bubble wrap and crinkle paper and foam, then send it out into the world with a hope and a prayer.
But there is a new philosophy on protecting our fragile, priceless artifacts.
It’s not the vase’s fault that the world is full of stone and steel. It didn’t choose to be brought into being in such a hard, unforgiving world. Why punish the vase by packing it up like that?
Instead, the packing supplies ought to be used on the stone and steel. If we just lay foam across every road and bubble wrap every building, you can kick the vase with your fluffy slippers all the way from China to your living room without risking a scuff or a chip.
Trying to make the fragile tougher is victim blaming and it’s abusive. And if you can’t make the fragile tougher, the only solution is to make the whole world softer.
It might take a little bit more work, but wouldn’t the world be a better place for the fragile if we focused our attention on every hard surface and sharp edge instead of shoring up our own weaknesses?
