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A seriously ill society

aventis

By aventis
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akshayxyz Newbie

akshayxyz

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Some guy's 'different' point of view on the incident. http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/lft5v/the_chinese_girl_who_was_run_over_twice_and/c2se1nb

I've been watching this drama unfold over the past few days. Honestly I'm not sure what to make of it, but I do feel that there's a bit of internet white-knighting going on here. I'm not happy that the kid has died but neither am I particularly cut up about it. I'm regularly accused of being too cynical and mean-spirited, but for one thing I know I do not want to watch the video of the kid being injured. I've read enough to know what it shows, but after 15 years of clicking on links to awful videos, I have gone right through the de-sensitization phase and come out the other side. I don't ever want to watch stuff like this again; it doesn't do me any good to watch it and it sure as hell doesn't help the mother of the dead child. Despite that, I'm still cynical enough to try and add some perspective to this story. There are 67,000 people that die in road accidents every year in China, at least that was the total in 2009. Most of them, if captured on video, would look jsut as gory and horrific as this one. Injuries from car accidents generally are really awful, because a ton or two of steel is a monster of a club to hit a flesh & bone body with. So I'm really not going to shed a tear over the death, nor the awful injuries. They are far from rare or unusual. OK, so the next issue is the one of people walking past without doing anything. Even a misanthrope like me is disappointed by this. I'm not capable of being a bystander, and in real life I have assisted at accident scenes several times, even as a child. But I also know that life is cheap in China. There's more than a billion of them, and even though they value their own lives, and the lives of their children, just as much as we do in less crowded countries, the fact is that Chinese people really don't place the same kind of absolute value on the lives of random strangers. In the US and other first-world countries, we have been taught that a single human life is worth a lot. Studies have shown that funding cancer research is supported by the average American, even when it is clear that spending millions in research and development saves just one or two lives over a ten-year period. This is true when we are talking about public money, but when we are talking about our own money being used to save strangers, suddenly their lives are worth a lot less. Like thousands of times less. I think we have been misled. Human life, in reality, isn't worth very much at all. Of course, the value of a life to it's owner, family, or close friends, might very well be huge. But I'm not talking about that. I mean that in terms of society, the life of a single member of that society just isn't worth much. How else can we explain the fact that we continually elect governments that kill foreign citizens in the hundreds of thousands? We do think of ourselves as very moral and respectful of life, but in reality we honestly don't give two ****s about other people dying. The amount of concern we have is proportional to the strength of connection we feel to the person or people being killed. So somebody from a different country, with different skin, who speaks a different language, who has different religious beliefs.... this person's life really isn't worth much. As you remove each of those differences we tend to value their life more, and once you are talking about someone from the same city, same neighbourhood, speaking the same language and worshipping the same god... suddenly we tend to value that life a great deal... almost as much as the life of a family members. So in this incident in China, we are seeing a different culture, with a different formula for valuing a life, and as many other people have testified, they have a very different idea about the usefulness of getting involved in someone else's problems. Even if that means walking away from the chance to save a life. They are different from us, in this one respect. Lots of people have mentioned the Kitty Genovese incident, and I agree with others that the different between the two cases means a lot - the people who heard Kitty being murdered were in their houses, behind walls and curtains, and had every reason to expect someone else was calling the cops already. Sure, this is very different from people willfully walking past a mutilated child on the sidewalk, but I think it shows we are not as morally righteous as we like to think, compared to these Chinese. The kid did not look like she was going to survive, regardless of whether or not she was going to get any help from passers-by. (Remember I haven't watched it, I'm just using other people's descriptions to make this judgement; I could have been mislead but I doubt it). I guess by now a lot of you think I'm a ****ing sociopath, but I'm really not. I am trying to explain something that a lot of people have said they can't understand. I'm not saying it's right, but I'm not condemning the bystanders either. To try and summarise: We have three things here that I find interesting: The horror of a child being so seriously wounded in public, with the driver driving off nonchalantly. Then we have the bystanders making zero effort to help the kid or even call an ambulance. Finally we have the hysterical reaction from the citizens of the world as they watch this. The actual accident isn't rare at all, not in China and not in the US or any other country. Talk to paramedics sometime - kids do NOT fare well in serious car accidents and wounds like this are commonplace. The bystanders not helping is something that offends our cultural sensibilities, but it's actually not as rare as you might think, and similar examples are well-known in western culture too. Finally, the hysterical reaction by the world after the fact is really just because we greatly over-value individual human lives when we personally have some connection to them, or we have to witness their ending. Most people could read a simple factual description of this incident and not be so upset. The video reaches into our guts and squeezes hard. Sorry for the long rambling screed, but I can't TL;DR this. Too bad if reading is such a chore.
Brainfade Newbie

Brainfade

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There's more than a billion of them, and even though they value their own lives, and the lives of their children, just as much as we do in less crowded countries, the fact is that Chinese people really don't place the same kind of absolute value on the lives of random strangers. Well, there's a billion people in India, too. Not buying what he's selling.

Rajiv Collaborator

Rajiv

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You know if this was a dog, another dog would come and lick it and if they could, they would even bark for help for the baby. Yet humans would do nothing, but apart from this video - dont u see how poor kids/beggars are treated, we shout "chal bag idhar se" its almost as cruel

Rajiv Collaborator

Rajiv

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I'll give you another incident. I worked at Reception - Sea-Princess hotel( while doing my Hotel Mgmt Training ). There was a guy who had a heart attack in the lobby and the floor manager is looking at the Front Office Mgr and everyone is going about their business. I reached out to a senior and said we should call ambulance, he told me to mind my business Eventually the ambulance came but this is the kinda of attitude people have, Mishraji looking at Sharmaji and a dumb ass eye contact as to how to deal with it? its not a freaking dead body, you wont be jailed you idiots but the guy might die. That's the thinking

nikred Newbie

nikred

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There's more than a billion of them' date= and even though they value their own lives, and the lives of their children, just as much as we do in less crowded countries, the fact is that Chinese people really don't place the same kind of absolute value on the lives of random strangers. Well, there's a billion people in India, too. Not buying what he's selling.
I had a minor accident only once, when I hit a pig (yes, I managed to find a pig on the middle of the road) while riding a bike. My jeans ripped and I had only minor injuries. But what surprised me was the way people in the surrounding reacted. Two guys helped me to a chair in a nearby roadside stall, and the owner offered me a glass of water. I still have faith in my countrymen.
akshayxyz Newbie

akshayxyz

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Once I drove onto a road-divider - because it was total dark (the street lights on the main-road-junction was all blank!!!), and I got blinded by the oncoming high-beams. Out of nowhere Police Patrol car turned up within couple of minutes, while I was still trying to figure out - what the feck happened and how to get my car off the divider. The police quickly checked my breath - I was not drunk - and they drove off.. w/o offering any help. Luckily some auto people and random strangers helped lift my car off the divider with bare hands!!. Point to be noted was - attitude of the Police people. I always believed that all that breath test etal was a farce (main motivation is money collection) - right around 9:30-10:30 pm, within 100 meters of popular pubs/restaurant-cum-bars...and that day it was confirmed.

Sachinism Newbie

Sachinism

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You know if this was a dog' date=' another dog would come and lick it and if they could, they would even bark for help for the baby. Yet humans would do nothing, but apart from this video - dont u see how poor kids/beggars are treated, we shout "chal bag idhar se" its almost as cruel[/quote'] Humans are the real animals
Brainfade Newbie

Brainfade

Posted
Posted
I had a minor accident only once' date=' when I hit a pig (yes, I managed to find a pig on the middle of the road) while riding a bike. My jeans ripped and I had only minor injuries. But what surprised me was the way people in the surrounding reacted. Two guys helped me to a chair in a nearby roadside stall, and the owner offered me a glass of water. I still have faith in my countrymen.[/quote'] Exactly the point. How come another nation with a billion people has not developed this callousness?
Blue Panther Newbie

Blue Panther

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Posted

I feel like crying. ****, omg. i mean this is horrible. Bloody chinky bastards. motha***kas. eat **** bastards. ****. I just showed it to my gf and she is in tears too. sorry for my anger, but this is nothing compared to what happened there. if i was there, i would have just jumped into that van hit the van driver with all my power. i dont how i am gonna sleep watching this video. feel really horrible. omg.

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