The Psychology of Terror in an Inexperienced Society
It was 1am on a rainy day when the author got into a casually parked cab for a post-drinking ride home. The cab driver seemed rather tired, prompting a question from the still energetic author to figure out the reason. "I had like 3 rides from Xizhi to Banqiao just in half a day today." The driver quipped, nonchalantly exposing the sense of surprise even after completing those 40km, 40min (without traffic), 20 USD (quite a sum for a single ride on a Taiwanese taxi) journeys. "And all of them were young ladies by themselves...but during the day when the MRT is still operating." The driver elaborated, referring to Taipei's subway system.
"So why don't they just take the train?" The author cannot help but ask, "are they still concerned that something like the random stabbing at Jiangzicui Station will happen again?" "Well, yeah, its all related, but not quite just that," the driver seemed keen on explaining," all three of the girls, and some more from previous days, told me that their parents told them to not the trains for fear of getting into the same carriage where the stabbings happened. They think the ghosts of the dead are still floating around the carriage or something!" The two guys in the cab immediately burst into prolonged laughter.
The tiny probability of being in the same carriage aside, the sheer ridiculousness of an older generation warning the younger ones about ghosts in trains is simply too distinctively typical of an Asian society with too little experience of how to handle a not-even-so-big of a man-made disaster. Rather than facing the difficulties of mental recoveries with a needed bit of stoicism and determination, Taiwan, in the days after the stabbing incident, has become one where doubting every single person with a slight bit of "unusual character" has become not only the norm, but the most acceptable behavior.
The media has certainly done a great job at flaunting every little incident of this hyper-sensitivity. Scanning news of the recent days, the author spots articles on people fainting in the MRT being mistaken for "murder," hyper-active people with confirmed mental disorders being mistaken for "premeditating actions," and even people taking out their phone being mistaken for bringing out their weapons. The dramatic increases of policemen with guns patrolling carriages seem not to have reduced the anxieties of the common people, who are just too busy creating enemies in their own minds every time they board the trains.
This reminds the author of a story a girl told him on a date a few days ago. A female friend of hers spent all four years of college working part-time and saving up cash for a dream trip to Paris. Finally, when she touched down in France, the first day she was mugged. Her idealistic view of France died within 24 hours and she has not looked at the country ever since. Such black-and-white mentality is typical of someone who has not bothered to step out of his/her overprotected comfort zone, and therefore holds incredibly superficial impressions of "the others" that can quickly be contradicted in the briefest of actual exposures.
In fact, the Taiwanese seem to have the same attitude about Taiwan. It is supposed to something (in this case, "extremely safe") and to contradict that established image, for most, is a revolutionary idea. People do not buy into the idea that the social fabric is fundamentally an ever-changing one where new ideas and incidents can easily unsettle the status quo. That strongest belief in the permanence of what is present establish a extremely deviated sense of security that, if proven otherwise, give the island's residents want seem to be a minor existential crisis of some sort.
The end result, two guys in a cab laughing their asses off about people's quesi-religious "solutions" to a feared MRT. For the author, having not only stared at death straight in the eye during the Quake in Japan and typhoons in the Philippines just recently, but also often sought out dangerous and potentially lethal adventures in various countries, the timidity shown by the locals here in reaction to potential copycats of the stabbings. Their fear is borne directly out of a more powerful fear of death by unconventional, violent means, something that the society as a whole has thought to be most a foreign problem.
But if the likes of the MRT stabbings has taught the people anything, it should be the randomness and inevitability of death when it arrives. People should face everyday with courage and with the motivation that it could very much be the last day of their lives. The real solution, rather than look for some way to hole up and run away from any and all sort of potential danger, is to make the best of every single moment in life so that when the danger comes, its lethal nature is not mixed in with a sense of regret or remorse. To die is, after all, not terrible, but to die without having lived meaningfully is definitely shameful.
"So why don't they just take the train?" The author cannot help but ask, "are they still concerned that something like the random stabbing at Jiangzicui Station will happen again?" "Well, yeah, its all related, but not quite just that," the driver seemed keen on explaining," all three of the girls, and some more from previous days, told me that their parents told them to not the trains for fear of getting into the same carriage where the stabbings happened. They think the ghosts of the dead are still floating around the carriage or something!" The two guys in the cab immediately burst into prolonged laughter.
The tiny probability of being in the same carriage aside, the sheer ridiculousness of an older generation warning the younger ones about ghosts in trains is simply too distinctively typical of an Asian society with too little experience of how to handle a not-even-so-big of a man-made disaster. Rather than facing the difficulties of mental recoveries with a needed bit of stoicism and determination, Taiwan, in the days after the stabbing incident, has become one where doubting every single person with a slight bit of "unusual character" has become not only the norm, but the most acceptable behavior.
The media has certainly done a great job at flaunting every little incident of this hyper-sensitivity. Scanning news of the recent days, the author spots articles on people fainting in the MRT being mistaken for "murder," hyper-active people with confirmed mental disorders being mistaken for "premeditating actions," and even people taking out their phone being mistaken for bringing out their weapons. The dramatic increases of policemen with guns patrolling carriages seem not to have reduced the anxieties of the common people, who are just too busy creating enemies in their own minds every time they board the trains.
This reminds the author of a story a girl told him on a date a few days ago. A female friend of hers spent all four years of college working part-time and saving up cash for a dream trip to Paris. Finally, when she touched down in France, the first day she was mugged. Her idealistic view of France died within 24 hours and she has not looked at the country ever since. Such black-and-white mentality is typical of someone who has not bothered to step out of his/her overprotected comfort zone, and therefore holds incredibly superficial impressions of "the others" that can quickly be contradicted in the briefest of actual exposures.
In fact, the Taiwanese seem to have the same attitude about Taiwan. It is supposed to something (in this case, "extremely safe") and to contradict that established image, for most, is a revolutionary idea. People do not buy into the idea that the social fabric is fundamentally an ever-changing one where new ideas and incidents can easily unsettle the status quo. That strongest belief in the permanence of what is present establish a extremely deviated sense of security that, if proven otherwise, give the island's residents want seem to be a minor existential crisis of some sort.
The end result, two guys in a cab laughing their asses off about people's quesi-religious "solutions" to a feared MRT. For the author, having not only stared at death straight in the eye during the Quake in Japan and typhoons in the Philippines just recently, but also often sought out dangerous and potentially lethal adventures in various countries, the timidity shown by the locals here in reaction to potential copycats of the stabbings. Their fear is borne directly out of a more powerful fear of death by unconventional, violent means, something that the society as a whole has thought to be most a foreign problem.
But if the likes of the MRT stabbings has taught the people anything, it should be the randomness and inevitability of death when it arrives. People should face everyday with courage and with the motivation that it could very much be the last day of their lives. The real solution, rather than look for some way to hole up and run away from any and all sort of potential danger, is to make the best of every single moment in life so that when the danger comes, its lethal nature is not mixed in with a sense of regret or remorse. To die is, after all, not terrible, but to die without having lived meaningfully is definitely shameful.
If only it were that easy. "Living every day like it's your last" is a great mantra, but internalizing it can't simply be done overnight by wishing it so. Environment plays a big part. I definitely find myself aspiring to live like you're imploring we should in your last paragraph, but I've discovered that doing so is much easier in an environment where a critical mass of others also do so. For me, as you can guess, that place is West Africa. I find myself getting dragged back into the stressful rat race every time I come back to the States. But, I digress. Maybe a first step would be to remind people that, statistically, they stand a larger chance of dying in a road accident or by a lightning strike on their walk home than they do being fatally assaulted on the subway?
ReplyDelete"Maybe a first step would be to remind people that, statistically, they stand a larger chance of dying in a road accident or by a lightning strike on their walk home than they do being fatally assaulted on the subway?"
ReplyDeletewell, not if people are convinced that copycat attacks of the same sort are bound to happen in the near future?
http://online.wsj.com/articles/man-dies-after-lightning-strikes-14-in-california-1406519232
ReplyDeletehaha quite some odds
ReplyDelete