Rubbernecking is that gawking thing we do looking at the carnage, death, slaughter, bloodbath, the piles of mangled vehicles (burning is even better) and other forms of destruction and accidents on the roads we travel. Traffic is flying fine at 65 miles an hour, we are heading for home, but suddenly it all comes to a crawl. First thought is accident and we swear and get irritated and just want to move back up to 65 and home. We finally arrive to the reason we are now using Interstate 5 as the longest parking-lot ever: the accident; and this is the moment we do that rubbernecking thing till it hurts. Admit it; you are rubbernecking as much as the rest of us.
But the question is: WHY DO WE DO IT? I have yet to figure that one out. Okay so it most certainly has something to do with morbid curiosity, and I can swing with that; but the WHY still pops up. Do we wish these people bad things in their unfortunate situation, the poor victims of a terrible accident? Do we giggle and praise ourselves lucky that we are not involved, repeating several times: better you than me, buster? Or are we watching to learn?
The same goes with a lot of other stuff around us. If two people are arguing in public we tend to strain our ears to listen in. If it gets physical, it’s an instant crowd-pleaser, so we gather around and in some morose way can’t wait for the first blood to spill. I really don’t get it. And then you have the sports with this added violence as in hockey, as if it is not an aggressive and violent enough sport without the gloves-off fist-fights. If they took that kind of action outside the rink, they’d be arrested on the spot. But it is looked through the gloved fingers by those in charge, as it is a fan-favorite (well, for many to most fans). But why the heck do we enjoy watching it? Please tell me… Do we have some perverted suppressed aggression we need to release by watching other people mauling each other?
And of course my all-time favorite: Why do we pay big bucks for boxing matches and cage-fighting (I believe it’s called). The sole purpose is for these guys to knock, kick and savagely beat the crap out of each other; and the more blood we see the better. Are we that shallow that we find it entertaining on some level or other? Why are we praising violence so highly? I really don’t see the purpose, seriously.
But we do have a weird sense of being attracted to that kind of stuff. 30,000 cars are heading home Sunday evening; they are full of happy and tired people after a fun weekend in the snow. The headline in the paper the next day, tells us about the 3 serious accidents that happened in the process; we are never told about the other 29,997 cars that made it home safely – go figure. Wouldn’t it be nice with some good news once in a while? Reading the daily paper’s headlines and watching TV news, it is overwhelmingly negative, morbid and depressing stuff. Do we really want that? Are we soon heading for an exchange like this?
“Hey Peter, how’s it going?” I smile and answer.
“Great, my mother died.”
“Wow; that is so cool…” Well, you get the idea.
We are constantly bombarded with violence as the only way to solve problems in our society. Movies and TV shows underline that. But we must like it and sadly agree with it, because as consumers we buy more and more. It’s the old supply and demand at its best; as long as we want it, it'll be available. But we have the power to change that; so why don't we?
Another weird thing is that we teach our children to solve problems and conflicts by communicating verbally, not by throwing punches (no matter how much they would really like to smash that idiot’s face – oops!). Again I tell our boys that violence solves nothing; they understand and mention that thing about: “Why do we have wars?” I elegantly pretend I didn’t hear it. So we head down to the movie-theatre to watch Pulp Fiction yet again (because it’s an artistically superb movie?) No we go see it because we like watching people be shot to pieces, problems being solved with blood and guts hanging out of the loser’s stomach and other bodily cavities. And when a couple starts arguing a few rows behind us, we are more than willing to activate that rubbernecking thing; okay, me too I’m sorry to say. But I don’t know why. The extremely weird thing is that I hate violence with a passion; and that’s the truth – really.
Now go make it a peaceful week, you hear! See you next Monday...
Footnote: Some research done in the early 2000 established that rubbernecking counted for 16% of all distraction-related accidents in the USA - 16%. Admittedly I have been darn close adding to those statistics several times, so I can believe that.
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