Picture
Insecurity, hands around legs
The most important thing is not to be left alone with feelings of insecurity.

Blog: In pursuit of a common sense of security

Release
28.11.2022 16:27
The security manager of the city of Imatra, Eemil Stigman, states that we need a solid resilience so that we can prepare for various disruptions in society in a unified manner.

Safety speaks, because the sensations associated with it evoke strong reactions in us. We are easily inclined to make quick conclusions about things that go against our moral concept, our world of values ​​or our lifestyles. It's about humanity and the built-in schema, the pattern according to which we react to external stimuli and the way we think about things.

The feeling of security is an entity that can be roughly divided on a personal level into an attitude towards social events and individual level issues. For example, the war in Ukraine does not cause us sanctions related to the armed conflict, and thus we do not have to protect ourselves in civilian shelters every day in fear of missile attacks.

On the other hand, Russia's war of aggression may have indirect effects on the societal level, which may affect our level of security and sense of security at some point in time. On a personal level, the feeling of safety is built on how we encounter, see or hear about, for example, violence, disruptive behavior or bullying in everyday life - and how these interact with everything we have learned and experienced in the past.

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Measured year after year, Finland is the safest and most stable country in the world, where trust in the security authorities is top notch. Although the statistics show one thing, we cannot ignore people's sense of security, if insecurity is experienced in society.

The sense of security actually has a decisive importance for how both citizens and institutions should relate to those who experience security-shaking and threatening events.

Experience creates feeling and feelings turn into action. The fear of an escalation of the war in Ukraine or an increase in gang crime and street violence are both current and serious topics of discussion.

Whether we can or could have foreseen or prevented these events is another matter. In a change-obsessed and complex world, assessing the future requires its own contribution. Civil servants, politicians and citizens alike make mistakes, which should be learned from in the future, when we deal with the development of the overall safety of society.

However, how our attitude towards things that promote or weaken security is reflected in practice, should be done appropriately: creating irrelevant threat images, painting, hate speech or inciting illegal acts are not the right paths for creating a sense of security. Vice versa. With these actions we create insecurity.

None of us is fearless, because even under the hardest shell there is a person.

The feeling of security is an important feeling in the spectrum of emotions. Getting rid of the feeling of insecurity is ultimately about very individual things, such as what act, event or thing creates insecurity. The most important thing is that you are not alone with your feelings and that the right kind of help is available. At the level of the individual, one must identify and acknowledge the limits of one's tolerance and society must offer its support to those experiencing insecurity or fear.

Like all emotions, fear is also natural. None of us is fearless, because under even the hardest shell is a person who, in an unsafe environment, will finally meet his winner.

Both at the level of society and at the individual level, measures must be taken to promote the fact that there are no factors in our environment that increase the feeling of insecurity. We must act openly and proactively to promote safety and the feeling of it.

We need substantial resilience so that we can prepare for various disruptions in society as a unit and to develop a safety culture. The speed of change in the world challenges our mental tenacity, but thus creates new operating models as the ability to recover from challenges and the opportunity to learn new things. 

Eemil Stigman

Security manager of the city of Imatra