Examines the trend of Americans away from the traditionally mobile, risk-accepting, and adaptable tendencies that defined them for much of recent history, and toward stagnation and comfort, and how this development has the potential to make future changes more disruptive. --Publisher's description.

"This short book examines the history of complacency in Classics with implications for our contemporary moment. It responds to a published piece by the philosopher Simon Blackburn ["The Seven Deadly Sins of the Academy," Times Higher Education (2009)] who presented "complacency" as a vice that impairs university study at its core. If today this sin is most discernible among scientists who feel that their rigorous training and verifiable results authorize them to assume omniscience in all areas of learning, this book points out that, from the nineteenth to early twentieth century, this presumption fell instead to Classicists. The subjects, philosophies, and literatures of ancient Greece and Rome were treated as the foundation of learning; everything else devolving from them. What, Hamilton wants to know, might this model of superiority derived from the golden age of the Classical Tradition share with the current hegemony of mathematics and the natural sciences? How can the qualitative methods of Classics relate to the quantitative methods of big data, statistical reasoning, and numerical abstraction, which currently characterize academic complacency? And how did the discipline of Classics lose its prominent standing in the university, yielding its position to more empirical modes of research? Finally, how does this particular strain of scholarly smugness inflect the personal, ethical, and political complacency we encounter today?"--

It is human nature to try to make things easier, more routine or, as the book title suggests, more comfortable. We see comfort as a good thing, and in and of itself, it is. However, when we become comfortable with what seems to be good enough, we lose the drive that leaders want in individuals. There is no more passion, motivation, excitement, ownership, accountability or initiative. The fact is, we become dormant and find ourselves simply going through the motions of life, in our careers, families and personal life. We begin to complain that it is the fault of others around us-my job, my boss, my spouse, my kids, my friends-when the reality is that we have simply stepped squarely into the trap of complacency. This book addresses seven key areas to help free you from complacency and challenge you to rekindle your passion and desire for success.

New Zealanders are too complacent about the continuing erosion of their right to know what government is doing on their behalf. Political risk has become a primary consideration in whether official information requests will be met, and successive governments have allowed free speech rights to be overridden. Drawing on decades of experience as a journalist and editor, Gavin Ellis chronicles the patterns of erosion and calls for entrenchment of the Bill of Rights Act. As supreme law, it would set a high bar that politicians must hurdle before freedom of expression could be curtailed.

This innovative argument shows the consequences of increased aversion to international war for foreign and military policy.

This book describes three different mental phases that correspond with success in sales or the lack thereof. Phase I people are highly motivated, focused, and anxious to learn and to grow; phase II people have become complacent and rest on their laurels; and phase III people have lapsed into outright apathy and cynicism. The book attempts to make readers aware of where they are on this complacency curve and offers advice on how to improve both motivation and productivity.

Pilot "complacency" has been implicated as a contributing factor in numerous aviation accidents and incidents. The term has become more prominent with the increase in automation technology in modem cockpits and, therefore, research has been focused on understanding the factors that may mitigate its effect on pilot-automation interaction. The study examined self-efficacy of supervisory monitoring and the relationship between complacency on strategy of pilot use of automation for workload management under automation schedules that produce the potential for complacency. The results showed that self-efficacy can be a "double-edged" sword in reducing potential for automation-induced complacency but limiting workload management strategies and increasing other hazardous states of awareness.

The United States is at a crossroads. Despite a defense budget that dwarfs that of any of the nation’s rivals, the marginal return on this investment has decreased dramatically since the end of World War II. Why? Why have America’s rivals, despite inferior resources, increasingly set the terms of international competition? How might America’s leaders reconsider the application of power to ensure a favorable place on an increasingly crowded global stage? By tracing the geographic and historical development of four global actors—Russia, Iran, China, and the United States—Phillip T. Lohaus illuminates four equally distinct approaches to competition outside of warfare. He argues that while America’s actions may have birthed information as a currency of power, the nation’s failure to fully grasp the implications of this transition has created critical opportunities for its rivals to increase their power at the expense of the United States. The American way of competition, rooted in a scientific understanding of warfare, may impede effectiveness in the amorphous and unscientific landscape of twenty-first-century competition. From Rome to Britain, complacency has contributed to the downfall of many empires. Yet the slow bleed of American power may still be stanched by an approach to competition that emphasizes subtlety, diffusion, and ubiquity. America has developed and used these tools in the past—its very survival may hinge on returning to them. Power and Complacency defines the differing perspectives of America’s international conflicts and offers possible solutions for reformulating its superpower strengths.

The book explodes the myths that currently drive society's view of traffic safety and limit progress in reducing death and serious injury. It presents current scientific knowledge in a non-technical way and draws parallels with other areas of public safety and public health. It uses examples from the media and from public policy debates to paint a clear picture of a flawed public policy approach and offers preventive medicine principles to take the field forward.

Although road accident deaths have halved between 1958 and 2007 whilst the number of licensed motor vehicles and vehicle mileage covered increased by 400 per cent, the current rate of 3,000 deaths and 250,000 injuries is still an unacceptably high level. Road accidents are the largest single cause of death for people between the ages of 5 and 35 in Britain, and road accidents cost our economy some £18 billion each year. The number of deaths and injuries on roads far outweighs the deaths and injuries in other transport modes, and should be viewed as a major public health problem. The Government should establish a British Road Safety Survey to track overall casualty and safety trends, and review current methods for recording road-traffic injuries. The Committee recommends a systems approach to road safety: ensuring the vehicle, the road infrastructure, regulations and driver training are designed to similar safety and performance standards. Other recommendations include: more 20 mph speed limits; a more proactive approach to determining the safety benefits of new vehicle technologies; action on young drivers - who represent a disproportionate risk to road users - and vulnerable users: motorcyclists, elderly and child pedestrians and cyclists, horse riders; a higher priority given to enforcement of drink-drive and drug-drive offences. The Committee recommends the establishment of an independent Road Safety Commission with powers to work across the whole of government, ensuring that a high priority and adequate resources are given to road safety and that all government departments and agencies give active support. The Government should also establish a road accident investigation branch, like those in aviation, rail and marine.