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Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Action, Crowd Reaction

So Newton told us that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, however he was refering to physics not people.

The recent Christchurch earthquake is an interesting case, clearly Newton was right on the physics front as all that action generated by the ground certainly caused a reaction with the buildings, roads, infastructure etc that it came in contact with. At this point I wish to say that I understand that a lot of peoples lives have been effected by the quake and I do feel for them however.....

That doesn't really account for the frenzy of fear, doubt, panic and over reaction we are witnessing on the TV and radio. We have people saying the can't sleep for worry, that they are moving out of town, some temporarily some suggesting permanently. That their lives have been permanenetly scared by this event etc.

I mean come on, this is completly silly, in the moment of the earthquake the fear and associated fight or flight response kicks in the juices flow and we act in a hyper mode of stress, increased heart rate etc. All of which can be very handy when a wall might fall on you at any moment and jumping quickly out of the way will save your life. The event lasted a few minutes or less at a guess (I wasn't there but I did feel it) and I will give you a couple of hours to calm down but after that the big reasoning brain should take over.

The likelyhood of aftershocks is high, however I understand that the first one is always the biggest (per a geology prof on the telly) and better yet you know they are coming so you can get ready. After that I suspect that the risk of another "big" quake (in quotes because it is all relative I guess) is the same as it every was (or probably less as my personal observation is they seem to be spread out in time) and that your level of panic should be the same as the day before the quake. I mean after all we live in a country created by two plates coming together this is a highly earthquake prone country.

Why then do so many people dwell on their feelings and completely disregard the rational response, also at times like this people who request rationality are likely to be branded as unfeeling and as I am at risk of that I feel the need to defend that position. Is it feeling to promote peoples fears as legitamate when they are not? Does this make them feel better? Can I feel empathy for your situation and loss without buying into your irational emotions? Well of course I can and acting rationally I am likely to be more useful to you. If a fireman comes to rescue me I could care less what he/she feels for me as long as they cooly and rationally do their job and help me out. Same thing isn't it?

But the media loves the drama, not much of a sound bite if someones says "well no one died so no real problem", on the other hand a distressed person grieving the loss of their property and vowing to head for the hills "before another one gets me" makes a much better image and so around it goes.

The worst example in my memory was the death of Lady Diana Spencer, the crazy scenes of people in major distress grieving for someone they didn't actually know will always be a head shaker for me.

Its a fine and good thing to have emotions but lets keep the big rational brain engaged which in the end should help us with our emotions. So do someone in Christchurch a favour ring them up and tell them the world is just the same as it was before and that you are thinking about moving to Christchurch as it should be about 100 years till there is another quake there. (rationally speaking of course)

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