Who was it that said, "we pack our fears."?

One thing is for certain, we are all spread out across the country/world. Each of the areas we frequent has differing levels of human impact. Front country is different than backountry. Intensive use areas are different than wilderness areas. Areas with (more) stagnant surface water are different than areas with spring fed sources. A major river with frequent swimmers/boaters is different than an off trail stream. All of these differences play a role in the probability of contaminated water and other safety issues. The question of "overkill" is thus dependent on the area and the specific situation. This is true for all risks. Most of us experienced folk have enough experience and knowledge to understand when to (and not to) take calculated risks. It is my opinion that the fear of most things in the backcountry by the public at-large is overblown. But for the newbies, this is good. They will take the precautions until they gain the experience and knowledge to reduce those fears to match the reality of the specific trip conditions. Unfortunately, what happens is the newbies will take extra precautions for low-risk possibilities at the expense of taking precautions for the higher risk possibilities.