^I understand.
The situational awareness, is key.
The situation is also different, at times.
When I used to bounce, people would occasionally try (occasionally succeed) to hit me in the back of my head with beer bottles.
I prefer a wall to one side of me.
Each to their own.
I wouldn’t describe paranoid people as fearful.
I have little fear of anything.
But I respect the fact that circumstances are often out of my control. In those moments, I am usually glad that I was being a bit more cautious than when at ease.
I was listening to two cops talking one day, about how many magazines one of the officers was carrying. He had the normalish 2 spares, but also had 5 attached to his body armor.
The one cop was giving the other guy a hard time, about why he thought he needed to burden himself with more clips.
His answer was “have you ever heard a story about when someone was in a gunfight, and they complained about having TOO much ammo?”
It’s a quirk, and it speads to all facets of my life.
Like I constantly reapply sunscreen.
I have “preper”-like behavior.
I just like to control as much about my surroundings as possible, if I’m not in a really comfy spot. And part of that, is eliminating the possibility of having to worry about attack from behind by not choosing to stand in places with someone right behind me.
It’s interesting that you mentioned NYC. The “word on the street,” is women are currently being attacked by strangers on a more frequent basis than normal there.
Women have posted often on social media, after being sucker punched in public.
In a perfect world, I would love to not have to appreciate the condition of my “society.”
If more people just didn’t put themselves in bad situations, that would be a MASSIVE improvement.
But. Is it not your paranoia, that motivates your actions of avoidance?