Driving back from class today (actually not that long ago)… I had to stop at a busy intersection because Police and Fire Rescue had closed it off. I didn’t see the wreck but about 3 minutes later a medical Helicopter lands. I really don’t care to see what is going on but the people in the cars around me exit their vehicles and walk about, trying to get a better look. Some even take photos with their little camera/cell phones.
My question is, why are people drawn to to things like this? Whats attractive about seeing a ruined life?
It’s a distraction from everyday (dull) life.
Or maybe they can see something which make them happy to have the life they have. If I see an accindent like that, my reaction is, whoho!, look what happend to them!
Lemmy strikes again:
“Did you see the accident, the road is red with blood
Funny how it makes you feel really, really good
It was them, it wasn’t me
It was them, it wasn’t me
'Zactly like I knew it would
I can’t help it everytime anybody dies
I can’t help it if it brings a sparkle to my eyes
It was them, it wasn’t me
It was them, it wasn’t me
Every time a nice surprise
Them not me, them, not me,
I can still be, I can still be free
Them not me, them not me
Over and over and over
Streets are like a slaughterhouse, turn right on the red
Here come pedestrians, night of living dead
It was them, it wasn’t me
It was them, it wasn’t me
Guess they should have stood in bed
Them not me, them, not me
I can still be, I can still be free
Them not me, them not me
Over and over and over
Alive not Dead
Alive not Dead
Alive not Dead
Alive not Dead
Alive not Dead
Alive not Dead
When I see those flashing lights & hear those sirens moan
See the smile on my face, I grab my mobile phone
It was them, it wasn’t me
It was them, it wasn’t me
Murder in the Twighlight Zone
Them not me, them, not me
I can still be, I can still be free
Them not me, them not me
Over and over and over
Them not me, them, not me
I can still be, I can still be free
Them not me, them not me
Over and over and over
Them, not me”
-Imp
‘copy, paste’. This is worse than your oneliners, Imp. I’m not gonna read it.
Thanks for the replies so far. I think that there is merit in the whole “there but for the grace of God go I” argument… but, personally, I don’t have to visit a Cancer Ward and see people dying to be grateful that I don’t have cancer. Maybe some folks lack that simple sort of faculty, I don’t know. The fascination with it made me think of something darker though, not that they were happy to be alive and healthy, but that they were (maybe) happy to see someone get seriously hurt/ possibly killed.
It struck me as, well, sadistic really.
We’ve got a word for it in the Netherlands; ‘ramptoeristen’ (which means ‘disaster-tourist’) We see it happen when an accident happens on a highway causing a file (of cars), while on the opposing road causes a ven big file by people who slow down to watch what happens.
Or when a crowds emerges where something is happening (a murder for example). Quite a natural response i think.
Perhaps Conrad was right… the veneer of civilization is but a mask.
I don’t slow down, except when forced to by “disaster tourists” – even then, I don’t look. If I was in an accident, I would want people to mind their own business (as long as help had already arrived).
I think there is some basic human psychology at work, namely to dare to face your fears. It is like sports, particularly the extreme sports: it is challenge, it is a dare. In this case the challenge: do you dare confront your deepest fear, namely death? and many people arise to the challenge, and make themselves see death, and then they walked away somehow comforted that they have overcome their fears, even if it is just a delusion. The same psychology is at work in horror movies too.
i remember that ive seen disturbing images in the past, and they came back into my memory later on. when the images came back, it was unsettling, unpleasant. i actually had a dream last night with such an image and its been annoying me all day. so i decided to avoid these images forever. i wonder if it has changed my life for the better? what are the long term side effects of browsing rotten.com all day long?
I don’t know. I disagree with the idea that people stop and stare only because it isn’t them.
It’s more like, something is finally happening. After all this time, at long last something really REAL is going on.
People wander through their life comatose, half asleep, insulated against the sheer bland repetitiveness of life. Then out of the blue here is something that wakes them up. An event happens and the come alive. They want to experience it. They become excited about life again, if only for a brief time. They will talk about it at work, tell stories about it to their friends and family. It was an event, and they witnessed it. “You had to be there,” well they were there.
Life is so controlled, safe and well regulated these days. There is a beneficial side to that and there is a dreadfully dull side to it. We live in narrow routines and drink from the wells of artificial entertainment that envelop us. We are full of other peoples polished and overly processed dead dreams.
An event breaks through that artificiality with a stark and startling example of the real.
Damn! xander,
So poetic! Are you just looking forward to the weekend or playing around with chemicals? 
I suspect that the answer is E, all of the above. The same people chase fire engines for the same reason(s). There is the excitement of something real happening and the chance of emotional catharsis looking at a disaster close up. Sort of a real-time greek tragedy.
JT
Hey JT,
This has indeed been a week that I wish to end. Much as terrified child who affixes his eyes to his precious nightlight while he desperately prays for dawn to end the night before the creeping shadows can whisk him off into the stygian darkness forever. 
Blame Lord NyQuil and his twin, the fluorescent orange master of the daylight hours. Yet it is the passing of these noble intoxicants, not their arrival that makes this day a new, untouched and unblemished perfection. 
I think that I ultimately agree with you Xander, and not because you wrote it up all purty in a Nyquil induced fugue either, Some folks will gladly forsake their dignity and the dignity of others for a “real” experience or experiences. I am sure there is a thrill to it for them, perhaps some adrenaline, as if they were the detached sorts to begin with they would never have taken much of an interest anyway. yep… thats what I think.
I sorry xander,
It’s no fun to have a code in your node. Hopefully, next week will be better. …ever had withdrawal symptoms after a week long jag on that stuff? 
I didn’t mind the withdrawal as much as my teeth being stained green for about two weeks. 
Of course, I may have been taking a bit too much of the stuff. Did that just once. Decided that dying would be preferable to dyeing.
JT
damn tent, you ever heard of coricidin? your teeth wont turn green and it will taste like pills! theres nothing like that feeling where… hmmm lets find the words…
when i described it in person, i put my hands in front of my head, with the palms facing eachother, like 6 inches in front of my face, and i moved them back and forth quickly saying “wwaaow-wwaaow-wwaaow” in unison with the movement of the hands. its like your whole visual world loses track of where it is when you get up and start walking and its like “where am i?!!? behind me?!? no- in front!! ahh!!!”
brain breaking is bad. my one friend got so into corecidin and its accompanying stomach pains that when we did it, he calmly states, a half an hour or so after we did it, that the medicine had absorbed out of his stomach and he will now go vomit the painfull pills. that crazy weirdo, dxm is fucked up
if somebody is looking to find reality and they are bored with all of the things they have already seen, maybe they should do a ton of drugs and realize that reality is really boring and you should deal with it or be a druggy failure. thats my attempt to drunkenly tie this dxm post into the thread. mundane babble yeah! dont do dxm
In 1997 I was half a block away from where Princess Diana was killed in the Paris tunnel accident and everyone was astounded that I didn’t check it out.
Not one person said “I wouldn’t have checked it out eitherâ€â€¦ All were flabbergasted that I didn’t want to be part of history or some such thing.
For months latter, there was a constant horde of people at the tunnel entrance. We are strange creatures…
Indeed we are strange creatures. What is it about a location where something historical happened that draws us to it? What is it that we seek there, and what do we find?
I recall once I went on a camping trip to Shiloh, where once Union and Confederate soldiers killed each other in a war long past. I remember feeling there was something mystical about it…especially when the fog covered the grounds at night. What can one say for grounds that soaked the blood of many?
Yes, I did think of that, Sagesound. Time changes it… but how much time? Immediately after the victims have been removed or days later?
What about if a person worries about it being worse than it actually is or whether someone they know was involved? To ease their mind they might need to run toward the crash site? What about a person who wants to see if they can help?
I think there’s lots of reasons people have an urge to go towards an horrific incident; not all of them negative.
There’s a lot of reasons for everything.