Violence, death and common sense

This two-minute video is making the rounds here in Europe. It’s self-explanatory, just watch it:

 

A few thoughts:

• I find it interesting that the uploader claims the officer “belittles” the drivers. Merriam-Webster defines that verb as such: “to cause (a person or thing) to seem little or less.” I’d say that is not at all what happens here. The officer isn’t making them feel little or less, he’s making them feel shame and rightfully so in my opinion. More in a bit.
• Why is there a big problem with gawking or rubbernecking, you might say? It’s dangerous and causes accidents, that’s why. It creates traffic jams due to the sudden slowing down, which causes accidents. It also makes drivers distracted and makes them hit dividers or other cars as they pass the site of the crash. I drive over 50.000km per year here in Belgium, which already has loads of traffic jams and it’s getting worse. Due to the way our highways are structured and being the crossroads of Europe, I get to experience dangerous traffic situations on a daily basis. I’ve seen this kind of thing happen repeatedly.
• Some people find the officer’s actions problematic. I don’t really have an issue with them. We can argue how effective they are in making people understand their dangerous behavior. Personally, I can see the benefits. The main one is that it can raise awareness of dangers and how your own actions can cause danger to others. More below.
• Some examples I wrote throughout the years:
  • The death of common sense regarding violence
  • Common sense and self-defense
  • Everything you know about violence is wrong
• If that isn’t enough, here’s another video. I did some research and it is apparently a real event, despite how it looks like he’s in front of a green screen. Notice the look on his face when he realizes what happened…

I’ve talked about this often with private students and have written about it even more: the safer our societies become, the less knowledge and experience there is when it comes to violence and death. As a result, when people are eventually confronted with these, they don’t know how to avoid them nor do they have the skills to handle them when avoidance fails. The results can be devastating… The flip side of that coin is that they also don’t understand how they can be the cause of danger to others. Case in point, the gawkers in this video and how they can create additional accidents.

Especially when it comes to self-defense and violence, both aspects are problematic.

That is why I write my blog, do private training and seminars and teach on my membership site: because there’s a need for this information. I wish it weren’t so; I’d gladly write about other things. But it doesn’t seem like that’s happening any time soon…