09-12-2009, 11:04 PM
Ashe Wrote:I actually don't consider what the Grizzly Man did to be "stupid" so much as an error of decision making due to overconfidence. I saw the documentary a while back, and in every way the man grew to feel that the bond and empathy that he'd developed with the animals was enough that he understood them and could handle any situation without the need for a firearm.
Despite this being a terrible example, Steve Irwin did quite similar (despite his fate; although his demise was more related to - again - a bad, overconfident miscalculated decision due to medication he'd taken earlier that day). However, there are numerous other people that have done the same.
I don't consider it stupid for someone to be doing something that they love and trying to observe animals as close as possible in their natural habitat as they act as natural as possible actually DOES help civilization out with this information. The inherent problem is that these animals, once ANYTHING goes wrong, can not be reasoned with like a human could and no matter how friendly it is, it can not just be soothed from pissed-the-fuck-off to docile quickly enough to save your life.
He was in actuality in no more risk than the many animal caretakers that have grown close to large cats (tigers, lions, etc) or other dangerous animals at zoos that either don't realize their own power or simply can't understand the ramifications of their lashing out in anger at their trainer on a particularly bad day, and have thus died as a result. Nearly every time, everyone that knew them would say that the animal had done something that was entirely out of character for it and thus the trainer didn't entirely have even made a mistake as they'd grown comfortable and their experiences with said animal told them things were safe.
So two points there - The first being that all it takes in those situation is for the animal to have that particularly bad day. Think back on your own time and you might remember a time when you've possibly just lost your temper or mind for some emotional stress or whatever and lashed out at that one person that you wouldn't, be it best friend, gf, mom, or whoever, and you really hurt them by doing it. Maybe you just kicked your dog or threw your XBOX controller across the room over something minor just because you weren't feeling the greatest and life was cascading shit on you that day. Now imagine in the same situation if you had enormous muscles, claws, instincts that taught you "to make a problem go away, maul that bitch" instead of "yell at someone or punch them". Just takes one slip up, and with a lot of animals, they are "accidently" deadly enough that the one time is the last time. I mean, an elephant can simply roll over and kill you without meaning to even if is the most harmless thing and wouldn't do it intentionally.
Point two - the problem is that their experiences over time (and this is a necessity and unavoidable) lead them to grow more comfortable with what they were doing, which leads to bigger risks (despite your mind no longer acknowledging it as such; you can't do your job if you are always pumped full of adrenaline), and also bonding with the animal. If you grow a little too comfortable with ANYTHING, you can die from it. Even if you are driving and don't touch the radio, don't look away from the road, don't use your phone, and have been driving for 30 years, you begin to treat it as routine. You WILL make a mistake at some point that will lead to a not so routine situation, such as miscalculating the depth of a puddle that you are normally able to just glide over with no problem and finding on a particularly bad day that this puddle you hit every single day for 30 years suddenly has a shard of glass that shreds your tire and sends you off the edge of the road into a tree. Did you do something stupid? Not really, you made decisions as your experiences in life had taught you to decide, but luck wasn't particularly in your favor that day.
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Like: Someone posted this on a Magic forum I frequent...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpHLEm9-0bg