The Napkin Prophecy

Have you ever had one of those moments where an idea hits you at the strangest of moments?  This hap­pened to me recently when my fam­ily and I were enjoy­ing break­fast at one of our favorite break­fast eater­ies.  When our food arrived at the table I asked the wait­ress for extra nap­kins, and it hit me.

Does ask­ing the server for more nap­kins increase the chance that you will need them?  Or is it sim­ply being pre­pared in the event that they are needed?  At what point does pre­cau­tion become self-fulfilling prophecy?

At first, I dis­missed the idea as the silly ram­blings of a man who hasn’t had his cof­fee yet, but it stuck with me.  I began to won­der if hav­ing a safety net would increase the like­li­hood of risky behav­ior or care­less­ness rather than sim­ply pro­vide a level of pro­tec­tion.  Does the safety net make the trapeze artist more bold, more care­less?  Does the seat-belt or airbag act as enablers to the lead foot?  What about gov­ern­ment spend­ing and the lack of accountability?

I think the argu­ment could be made that the avail­abil­ity of “extra nap­kins” increases the like­li­hood that the net will be needed.  In the back of one’s mind, the knowl­edge that addi­tional risk could be mit­i­gated by the safety mea­sures in place effects the level of restraint one would nor­mally main­tain.  While not true in every sit­u­a­tion, I do think the level of coun­ter­mea­sures avail­able do increase the odds that they will be needed.

Imag­ine where our Coun­try would be, for exam­ple, if politi­cians tried not to make a mess of things rather than con­stantly ask­ing for more nap­kins.  What do you think?

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