@ Doctor Syntax:
"Once upon a time men flew to the moon.
Once upon a time civilians cold fly supersonically.
Somehow it seems we've stopped being a "can do" species and become "can't do" instead. Whatever happened to our sense of ambition?"
It was pounded out of us. Lysol everything to death. Bubble wrap around the kids just in case they skin a knee. Black on yellow stickers on *everything*. Boogie men on every corner kidnapping thousands of sweet innocent children EVERY DAY! OMG!! TERRORISTS!!!
Between Madison Avenue selling utterly useless tat as 'make your house/family/child/car/oven/electrical outlets/stairs safe!' conning folks into the idea that we're all fragile glass instruments subject to the vaguest whiff of something even remotely off from perfect, and the constant use of panic, terror and fear in the media purely to increase ratings for ad sales and to push headline sales out the door, we've become afraid of everything.
And in reality, it is the "your profits didn't rise in the last quarter, so we're going to beat your stock value to the ground" threats from wallstreet that mainline the bullshit through the corporates.
...... <holy crap I'm awfully ranty today>