Playing by the Rules: How Our Obsession with Safety Is Putting Us All at Risk
Can a cell phone cause a major explosion at a gas station? What would happen if the 3 oz rule at airports was abolished? And are all the child protection measures really making children safer?
These rules exist in the name of our own protection, but has anyone ever stopped to consider exactly how and why? In Playing by the Rules, authors Tracey Brown and Michael Hanlon dig deeper to discover the real reasons behind many of the global safety rules and security regulations we obey without question, and their conclusions range from the surprisingly pointless to shockingly dangerous.
Does it make sense to surrender your nail clippers to board a plane equipped with an axe on the back of the cockpit door? And is there really a good reason to prevent an adult from swimming in a lake more than a foot deep? This engrossing study will inspire readers to question the people and organizations who come up with life's little guidelines - and empower you to live life to the full.
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"This is the book I have been writing in my head ever since the TSA confiscated my unopened jar of peanut butter because it was a 'liquid.' 'But it's not, ' I said, turning it upside down. 'See? Solid.' The TSA agent gave me a rueful smile...and then he took my Jif. THANK GOD someone else has taken a look at all the stupid, annoying and pointless 'safety precautions' we're up against every day and given them the analysis -- and scorn -- they deserve." - Lenore Skenazy, founder of the book, blog and movement Free-Range Kids
"Security mania has invaded almost every aspect of life, from air travel to parenthood. Tracey Brown and Michael Hanlon artfully expose a fixation that has become wasteful and, ultimately, self-defeating. It's not for the squeamish, exploring an obsession at times so illogical that it leaves the reader bewildered and deeply concerned about our collective sanity. But it's a book that needed to be written, and one that needs to be read." - Patrick Smith, New York Times bestselling author of Cockpit Confidential
"[An] excellent, skeptical take on safety culture" - BBC Focus
"In this book Tracey Brown and Michael Hanlon take on the large, profitable and growing 'security industry' and expose its foolishness, its impotence and, most worryingly, its tendency to inflict unintended consequences . . . [Playing By the Rules] challenges innumerable assumptions and foolishnesses" - Michael Bywater, Literary Review
"[Playing by the Rules] tells you how to stand up to a jobsworth with knowledge, courtesy and common sense" - The Times (London)
"Despite the seriousness of the subject, Playing by the Rules is an entertaining read. Brown and Hanlon write in a lighthearted tone, allowing experience and research, rather than fear and mistrust, to back up the call to skepticism and action. Here, grassroots advocates find an encouraging primer for insisting on better, not simply more, safety measures." - ForeWord
""In fast-paced chapters, the authors outline a number of seemingly pointless rules and advocate for challenging anything that doesn't make sense. Readers will enjoy the anecdotes and will be inspired to rage against the machine." " - Booklist
