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Likely he is speaking from the position of wanting to be unimpeded by the actions of others as much as possible. By ignoring things that are meant to harm you, you reduce the total number of threats and obstacles in your life to only those things which can't be ignored. There is some danger in it, "You can ignore reality, but you can't ignore the consequences of ignoring reality." (Ayn Rand), but it's likely that people on average ascribe TOO much significance to things rather than too little.