I was recently compelled by the appaling drama of
Little Bianca to the point of picking up the pen where I had left it, something like a decade ago, and start writing again. Something terribly wrong about the whole tragedy churned my stomach and tore me on the inside enough to want to try and make a difference in my own little way.
I have mentionned some of my concerns and some of my views in the article recently published. There is however a lingering reflection that has kept me thinking and questionning and has been considerably gnawing at my conscience.
Yes, I do believe we are most of the time somewhat imputable at some degree for whatever goes on in the world around us or that at the very least, we have some way of affecting the future outcomes in relation to whichever matter is at stake. And it's being cristallized in what will become to be known as the
John S Miles initiative or the compounding effect of imputability. And I did express various ways in which we can all be somewhat involved in promoting or not condemning speeding and wreckless driving.
I would like however and furthermore today to share a different kind of concern. One that might be even more disturbing or more sociologically profoundly embeded in our society...
Have you ever asked yourself where does the need for speed come from? There's various answers to that and a lot of them very valid. One that comes to mind is that there comes a physical response from speed, a rush, an adrenaline rush and potentially endorphines and all that ensues. Essentially, it's a drug. It's a form of recreational drug. Rather than injecting something, the person creates a situation that generates the rush and get their fix. And it's a very real rush and can even be somewhat of a hard habit to kick for some. There are various studies on daily runners and such that paint a very graphic picture of how the molecules naturally produced by the body can even create quite an addiction at a certain level.
Now if you're going to be jumping off a bungee rope or out of a plane, it's one thing. You're not impeding anyone's life really. But when you indulge in that need behind the wheel of a massive lethal weapon of 2 tons of steel, you're not alone anymore. And you are putting other lives at risk. And not in a remote way. In a very real, very dramatic way. The statistics on car accidents are staggering and disturbing. Especially when you look how much speeding and/or driving impaired has to do with it.
I grew up in the Laurentians. Where the need for speed is second nature to many young teens and young adults if not most. We speed on the ski hills, speed with the windsurf, speed with the boats, speed with the snowboards, and unfortunately speed with the motor bikes and the cars. I won't hide the fact that I have countless stories of friends speeding or racing and these so called exploits use to be at the source of many "glorious" conversations. And there are almost as many stories of terrible car crashes and wrecks occasionally taking the lives of friends and even potentially innocent victims but quite often and disturningly not so. Just another case of so and so totalling this car or that car and walking out with a few bruises.
I myself have been, as a passenger, involved in a few major spin outs or tumble fest down a ravine where we were incredibly lucky to make alive and with unbelieably almost no injuries. A few times. As in 2-3 times. That was more than 15 years ago at an age where we thought we were somehow almost invincible and quite senseless and very irresponsible. I was often the nagging one, reminding friends to put on their seatbelts and not drive drunk or slow down or such but I still took part, against my better judgement or not, in countless episodes that could've taken the lives of innocent victims in the very same way that some others recently did.
When I look back into our behaviors back then, I can't help but to ask myself. How could we've prevented that? What was at play and how do we avoid a similar plague in the current young generation?
I believe that part of the answer is in education. Parents, families, relatives, schools, teachers, media and society have to educate the young generation on the real dangers of speed, drunk and wreckless driving. Most definitely. Had we somewhat known better, we might have acted differently. That's definitely part of the answer.
At the same time, my intuition tells me that there is something much more visceral and powerful at play. Something much more insidious about the legendary need for speed...
I do believe that the need for speed is really the expression of a need for empowerement. It seems to me that a lot of people feel the need to speed because it makes them feel in power. They feel like they have the edge on "lesser" drivers. Speed has an ancestral and historical siege of alpha male domination to it. And it seems to be especially true with hormonally testosterone driven young males.
Now if that is indeed the case, and if it is indeed killing so many young teens and their innocent victim, what seems to be an even greater tragedy is the mere fact that these teens or yound adluts need the speed in the first place. The fact that they need that hit, that drug, that rush, that feeling of empowerment tends to indicate that it feels necessary and acceptable to use speed to fill some kind of a void. And that is to me, a terrible irony and an appaling scenario.
We have the incredible privilege of living in one of the best place to live in the world! Canada often ranks as the first, second or third best place to live in on the whole planet! How incredible is that? Billions of people are dying from hunger and illness, they're busy struggling for their mere survival. And we're at the very top of that pyramid where for so many of us, survival is not really the issue. We have the luxury of living while so many people have to focus all their energy on just surviving. Every single day fighting for their lives.
And yet, we kill ourselves and each other on the roads because we somewhat feel empty somewhere inside? We, in turn, wastes lives. How terrible is that? And not just on the roads, Quebec has one of the highest suicide rates in the world for young men. In the world! We have it pretty much the best and yet we kill ourselves! Is there something we missed here??
Doesn't that indicate that we're doing something wrong here? And I do say we because I really do truly feel that as individuals and as a society something needs to be done. We need to be happy. We need to feel whole, empowered, fulfilled, accomplished, stimulated. And not only do we need to be happy but then, we pretty much bear a certain responsability in my humble opinion to spend a bit of our lives helping the other few billions that are dying everywhere around us...
How do we adress that void? How do we avoid the need for speed or how do we channel it? That's a different article in itself and I will gladly get to it as soon as I get the chance. In the meantime, I just wanted to voice that there might be much more to these accidents than meets the eye, in my humble opinion.
Feel free to share your views on the subject.
Best regards,
John S Miles
