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Rich -- I agree entirely -- everyone should take responsibility fro him/herself. But in the current atmosphere, the training agencies do more to foster a lack o f self-responsibility than anyone realizes: We have to go to an agency to be "or dained" (certified) as a diver. We are told " You're NOT OK to do this until we say you are. We will make you safe after you give us $150 dollars. " In other wo rds, we are told to * turn over* responsibility to them, in order to become a div er. We're told this by the agencies, the gov't., the lawyers. And so we do. The result is that , since *they* told us that we're OK, it's also * their* faul t when it's not OK and something goes wrong. We could all learn to dive (or do an ything else) on our own. The info is all there. But we get any sense of responsib ility yanked away from us immediately. Must must take a course -- must be certifi ed by someone else. This does save lives. I'm not against formal training -- it' s the way to learn without dying early in the process. But it shifts the emphasis of responsibility from "self" to "name of intity here." It used to be that a "buyer beware" sticker, addressed to the consumer, was all that was necessary to cover liability -- it reminded the consumer of his/her own ultimate responsibility. In fact, the first explorers at Wakulla Springs (1958) told us that they learned to dive by reading the small brochure that came with the tank! They were on their own, and that was recognized by themselves, the manu facturer, the gov't. Now we are told that we can't do anything on our own -- we a re not smart enough, aware enough, responsible enough -- so therefore some entity has to take care of us -- for our own good. Independence -- and a sense of resp onsibility is lost. Your disclaimer statement is a "buyer beware" of sorts. But our society doesn't a llow that anymore, I'm afraid. Once people either allow, or are made to, let ot hers take responsibility for their safety, then it's really hard to reverse the u nfortunate process and the irresponsible mind-set that we are all living under. Pessimistic? Perhaps -- but it's not my fault! :-) Christopher A. Brown The Technical Diving Video Library by Sci-Graphica PR/DOCENT FILMS Tallahassee FL 32311 chbrown@fr*.fs*.ed* P 904-942-7222, F 904-942-1240 It's not the pace of life that concerns me -- it's the sudden stop at the end.
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