PRUDENCE: sense of risk
It is maybe strange to see the word Prudence (Latin: providentia meaning “seeing ahead, sagacity”) in an article dedicated to motorcyclists: a category always considered adventurous to the point of recklessness.
“Prudence was considered by the ancient as the cause, measure, and form of all virtues.; the auriga virtutum or the charioteer of the virtues. It is the virtue to judge in advance the right action, to take the appropriate decision in time. Unfortunately, in today’s society, Prudence has lost this prominent position among virtues, associated, as it is often, with lack of courage, cautions to the point of cowardice and excessive restrain”.
We want to bring back the original meaning of “prudence” and the roof such virtue in two key components of good motorcycling: the sense of risk/hazard and the anticipation in planning.
The sense of hazard and the connected action of anticipation originate from self-perception and meditated experience: attitude toward risk is strictly connected to the way one perceives the self and to the meaning that one gives to life.
People believing in a self-centred existence, on the fact that we are masters of our life and of the universe and that we are free toward humanity and nature, are prone to be at the two extremes of sense of hazard.
In them, such a sense can be completely absent or obsessively dominating, and they can be ready to take a high level of risk or to move extremely cautiously for pathological fear of risk.
Only the knowledge that life is a shared event, that we are created like everybody else, and that we live in a natural world not owned by us, can fuel Prudence and generate a sense of communal responsibility: correct dimension to the sense of hazard. If I consider myself responsible, if I love and respect other humans and the whole creation, then I possess a proper sense of the risks and a reasonable base to start anticipating what is waiting ahead in time a space. I can act with Prudence.
A lack of sense of hazards is always a good indication of selfishness, egoism, and a violent attitude.
Prudence and Respect are the builders of a correct attitude toward risk-taking and the sentinels for hazards ahead.
As an example, consider the perception and control of speed: when motoring we need to move at a speed that allows us to stop, on correct side of the road, in the distance that WE SEE clear.
How much of the road can we see clear when crossing a village or a junction? Very little, nevertheless we normally proceed with a speed not dictated by the environment but with the speed that WE THINK is safe. We are self-centred and our judgement, not Prudence, is the creator of the situation.
On the other side of the spectrum, if one is conscious of depending on others and respecting human life, there is no need for signs of speed limit: self-awareness dictates a correct sense of hazard: speed is instantly reduced to anticipate and face hazards seen and unseen.
The quote “Past is the best predictor of the future” has many fathers (Mark Twain?) while reflecting, not always, a universal truth. Taking a lesson from the mistakes and errors of the past is not any more popular in a society that pushes to forget the bad and remember, celebrate just successes. Still, experience is a combination of pleasant and unpleasant events and it could be a good database for the prediction of what lies ahead. But experience is “a hard kind of teacher because it gives us the test first and the lesson afterwards” (O. Wilde).
This is why, while evaluating risks and planning ahead, we should not refer simply to “experience’ but to “meditated experience”, the lesson and the knowledge that we got when examining and considering what happened in reality. Prudence stems from this meditated experience; nevertheless, experience of the past can be an element of a hazard as well.
One of the oldest and more primitive parts of the brain, the amygdala, our “threat detector”, is constantly scanning the environment, without us even being aware of it, to assess the level of security and to alert us of any signs of trouble. It is a basic survival mechanism to protect us and keep us safe.
When problems arise, the amygdala “hijacks” our brain and we act before we even realise what’s going on.
It quickly starts applying past experiences. The amygdala’s ability to take over our brain is wonderful when our survival depends on our ability to react without thinking and on the fly. Amygdala may act without thinking when facing the same situation of an accident that we experienced in the past, and it may cause a bad experience again. Even though the original threat is no longer present, we react as if it exists and may unwittingly become more dangerous. When triggered, we go instantly from stimulus to response: but if we can slow things down, and widen the gap between impulse and action, giving time and space to do things differently. The key to doing just that is in alliance with our prefrontal cortex, located at the top of our brain. Similar to an orchestra conductor’s ability to direct, balance, and shape sounds from different parts of the orchestra, the prefrontal cortex can regulate our nervous system, and slow down instinctive survival response.
We can deliberately enlist the help of our prefrontal cortex by engaging our “observer”: the part of us that can see, watch and describe what is going on. We can then look without being unduly affected by erratic emotions. We can act with Prudence and this process not only changes our relationship with emotions but changes the whole experience itself. We can then identify and name our emotional experiences, we can see more accurately what is happening at that moment and we can avoid being controlled by our old program.
This is what “meditated experience” is about: it is the capacity to observe and evaluate what happened away from the first instinctive reaction. To train the brain to store the “evaluated experience” and to transform it into education and skills one needs to “return to the past event (good or bad) mentally and/or physically with the wisdom of prudence” and build up a judgement and a program for the future.
For example, after a big or small accident, it is necessary to return with the mind to the sequence of events that led to it, to the thinking and the acting before and during the accident. In the experiences of many bikers, it helps to return to the place of the accident and retrace, in loco, the event. The same is true for positive events: retracing with the mind a set of corners, correctly linked, increases knowledge and our skills.
This is how prudence creates a “real database” of the past ready to be wisely and instinctively used in the future. It is the base for anticipation or prediction. “Prediction” has a touch of mysterious capacity of sixth sense and while nobody can predict the future we can anticipate hazards that come from ourselves, from other road users, from the vehicle, from the road and from weather conditions.
The example is almost banal but quite useful in understanding anticipation: when a ball crosses our path, we can anticipate that a kid will follow chasing the ball. When entering a petrol station, we can anticipate diesel spills on the pavement. When a car slows down in front of us, we can anticipate a change of direction. When a driver just parked, we can anticipate a door opening… it all depends on the size of the “database of meditated experience, or conscious experience”., it all depends on prudence.
The more we ride and think, the more we observe and evaluate our rides, the more we analyse our mistakes, the more we reconstruct the events of our rides, the bigger the database file becomes, and the faster the access to the mental file when needed. The use of the virtue of Prudence increases with the growth of knowledge, correctly evaluated experience and practice on the road.
Taking poorly calculate risks often comes from lack of anticipation. The capacity of anticipating hazard, of “accessing mental files” and of acting wisely is what prudence is about.
Consider: prudence is a builder of good, advanced motorcycling and the architect of solid relationships with friends and family.
