Who’s in Charge?

Human beings wish to believe that they are the masters of their own fate. It is a natural desire to want to feel that we are controlling what direction we go in and that the plans we make will happen. But even while we mock those people who are frightened by sounds in the dark and imagine that someone or something is out to get them, this mockery is based on the desire to feel that these fears are ridiculous, even while we know in our inner hearts, that there may be an element of truth to them. Is safety merely an illusion? Are the homes we have created really a bastion to shelter us from the dangers of the world? Thor Heyerdahl, the Norwegian captain of the international team that sailed the Kon-tiki raft from Peru to Tahiti, explained, that when he or the crew contemplated the potential dangers they were faced with, they would go and sit in the small cabin they had built from wood. The walls gave them comfort, a sense of security. But the Kon-Tiki raft was an imitation of one built in 1000 BC, in other words it was made of very basic material, and hence the feeling of insecurity that the crew felt at regular intervals was valid. And that little hut, in reality, provided no real protection.

It is when the dangers that we are all subject to strike unexpectedly that we are reminded how we are not really in charge of our own lives. For the most part people remain unmoved by tragedy. Ships sink with frightening regularity and leave the public quite unmoved. Most people read of the killings and massacres around the world and turn back to their beers and sandwiches. The tragedies that tend to emotionally move the public are those which seem so unfair. Those where we could so easily imagine a different end, if only … For example, when a coal mountain collapsed in the small Welsh village of Aberfan the whole world was appalled. Here the shocking sight was clear for all to see as the pictures of the elementary school covered in coal went round the world. One hundred and sixteen children were killed on that fateful day in 1966. And there was a strong “if only” element that reinforced the feelings of disaster and fear. If only the coal slide had happened the next day, the children would have been on
holiday. If only it had happened ten minutes later the children would have been in their classrooms and many more of them would have survived.

Do people have a stronger emotional reaction when children are involved? The evidence does not corroborate this as is exemplified in the sympathy shown when 168 tough, strong men were killed when an oil rig platform in the North Sea collapsed. The irony of the situation is what raised the level of sympathy. Although these men had chosen a dangerous profession that put them in jeopardy due to the harsh environmental conditions, the fact was that they died when they were not engaged in work. And this is almost certainly the reason that people felt the event was such a tragedy. The fact that these men, whose work life was so dangerous, were killed while relaxing and doing nothing hazardous, enabled people to emotionally connect to these terrible events and understand, “there but for the grace of God go I.”

Every animal feels safe in its burrow, every bird in its nest – and safe in the nest, what bird has ever worried about those men with chain-saws at the bottom of the tree? Sailors often refuse to learn to swim, and many even want to think of the water as flat and solid, just as we believe that our sturdy walls will keep disaster away. The parents had the illusion that their children were safe and sound in the village school. The men on the oil platform had the illusion that they were home and dry for the moment. But wherever we are, whether seeking sanctuary by our fireside, or exposed to the elements on the high seas, safety is an illusion that is beyond our control.

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