Mencius Moldbug notes that living with our current level of crime — indeed, with armed gangs ruling the inner-city streets — would be unthinkable a few short generations ago. But, then again, he couldn’t imagine living in San Francisco if there were fifty or sixty leopards loose in the city either:
But I can see how people would get used to it. Leopards are nocturnal, so you stay in at night. They hide in trees, so you cut down the trees. They tend to hunt in certain areas, so you avoid those areas. And the situation could develop gradually — the first leopard is a huge news story, the second is a smaller story, and they build up over time. After a while, the experience of walking down the street while checking for leopards would strike you as completely normal and unremarkable. If one day the leopards were removed, however, you would definitely notice it.