Recently English former headteacher Emma Kelty was shot, robbed, raped and murdered in Brazil while travelling alone using a kayak down the length of the Amazon river, a distance of (apparently) some 4000 miles. She had pitched her tent in an area notorious for gangs, drug traffickers and murders, and had even commented on social media about the risks ('I will have my boat stolen and I will be killed too - Nice'); before setting off she had apparently taken a course in some sort of self-defense to help her cope with danger. Alas it was no help against feral armed gangsters with no respect for other people, their property or their life.
Everyone mourned the loss of a life, and one full of zest and an adventurous spirit, but some people criticised her judgment in travelling alone, unarmed and camping in such a dangerous place. Some went as far as to call her foolish, which has prompted a reaction and an opposing view being put forward: Don't call her foolish, for that way you are attaching blame to her, and she was clearly the victim here. If anyone is to blame it is her attackers and no blame should be attached to her.
This is such a wonderfully simplistic and idealised view of life, choosing to disregard reality because 'it shouldn't be like that.' But - and I have said this many times and will repeat it again and again - life is as it is, not how we want it to be. If we willfully ignore the reality of a situation we are at least partly to blame, even when we are the victims.
Think about it - people shouldn't steal, but if you leave your car unlocked with the keys in the ignition you are no going to be covered by your insurance policy if it is stolen. In an ideal world we would not have to lock our front doors, hide our valuables, not provoke dangerous individuals; but our world is far from ideal, much though we may wish it to be otherwise. This is illustrated every day yet in the western 'civilised' world not only do we choose to ignore this but protest against the notion that individuals need to do anything to protect themselves as paternalistic, sexist or anything else that we can come up with.
Look at the natural world with a critical eye and you will understand that it is as far from a Disney cartoon as you can get. Yes, there is a lot of love and cooperation in nature but mixed with savagery, cruelty and death, where often one species depends on harming (usually eating...) the other to survive. It is not a fairy-tale existence, happily ever after, where man is the only cruel predator and otherwise animals would live in perfect peaceful coexistence. Yes there is harmony and interdependence, but based on harsh realism and a 'your death, my life' existence. This is not nice, but it is reality.
I agree that we should try and make our world a place where abhorrent incidents like the one in the Amazon do not happen, where nobody steals, attacks or harms another person in any way, shape or form. Let us attempt at making an idealised world, where all is love and the milk of human kindness overflows, where barbarity is eliminated and cruelty is absent. It is a utopian vision, I fear, and all that I know and understand of our nature tells me it cannot be.
In the world we now occupy we have a responsibility not to allow ourselves to become victims, to protect ourselves. Ignoring reality is stupid and breathtakingly irresponsible and we end up paying for it, sometimes even with our lives, like Emma Kelty. How can this be justified? Why do we expect people to behave according to our expectations when they manifestly see things differently and behave the way that suits them?
Do not ignore danger just because it 'shouldn't be like that.' Do not enter into dangerous situations without being fully - and I do mean as completely as possible - prepared. The world can be a pitiless place, inhabited by hard, mean people, and the danger they pose should not be underestimated. We are responsible for our actions and must live (or in Ms. Kelty's case die) with the consequences. That, I'm afraid, is reality.
If someone tells you that if you walk down a certain dark alley at night you will be robbed and maybe killed and choose to ignore it because life shouldn't be like that and you should be free to go wherever you like whenever you like you are being reckless. Never do this unless, that is, you are prepared to pay the price, whatever that may be.
No comments:
Post a Comment