MH370_ Lessons in Human Nature - Livemint
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3/19/2014 MH370: Lessons in human nature - Livemint http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/vaeI6a6rMgmU34Dc7cZ6TK/MH370-Lessons-in-human-nature.html 1/4 Like Follow @livemint LIVEMINT | HINDUSTAN TIM ES | LIVEHINDUSTAN HOME COMPANIES INDUSTRY POLITICS CONSUMER MONEY OPINION LOUNGE MULTIMEDIA SPECIALS EPAPER LIVE MARKETS ELECTIONS 2014 VIEWS | ONLINE VIEWS | COLUMNS | QUICK EDIT | BLOGS Tweet 6 0 1 Comments Subscribe to: Daily Newsletter Breaking News Enter email Latest News 01:00 AM IST Debating the debacle 12:44 AM IST TCS warns of weak Q4, but says 2014-15 will be good 12:43 AM IST How different are the 2014 elections? 12:36 AM IST We need tough defamation laws: NDTV’s Prannoy Roy 12:35 AM IST There should be good growth in the US in 2014 and beyond: Marianne Lake Editor's picks Hope fuels market rally, but will it last? Vladimir Putin annexes Crimea but says won’t seize other Ukraine regions The story of the Malaysian Flight MH370 that dropped off the radar more than a week ago is a dramatic and tragic story with global stopping power. Photo: AFP The weather was good. The plane, a Boeing 777, left on time. Flight control tracked it on the radar when the pilot said ‘All right, good night’. Then there was nothing. The story of the Malaysian Flight MH370 that dropped off the radar more than a week ago is a dramatic and tragic story with global stopping power. It shot straight to the news headlines around the world. All big news websites in India covered it, as did the media in other parts of the world. Most people who heard about it developed a theory of what happened. It was a terrorist attack. A hijack. The body was torn open by material weakness, pulverizing the plane. It encountered aliens. We find affirmation or refutation of our theory in the findings of big news agencies, the Malaysian press conferences and the global aviation experts who give their opinions. And so we participate in a mystery plot unfolding live, like a multimedia global reality version of the board game Cluedo. It is a tragic story that draws our attention to several traits of human nature. First of all, the story shows that we have a tremendous capacity for empathy. We get hooked to the sadness of complete strangers. Despite our ever-deepening immersion in our individual digital bubbles, we empathize with the sorrow of the victims’ families. We imagine what we would feel in their place. We can feel their horrendous desperation and frustration that FIRST PUBLISHED: TUE, MAR 18 2014. 11 36 PM IST HOME » OPINION » THE PITCH REPORT MH370: Lessons in human nature The story of the Malaysian Flight is a reminder of the fragility of our existence Tjaco Walvis MOST READ Thailand gives radar data 10 days after Malaysia Airlines plane lost Report on India’s defeat in 1962 war revealed India to appeal against Italy court’s order on AgustaWestland deal guarantees Make the best use of your initial salaries 2002 riots: Zakia Jafri appeals against clean chit to Modi 19 MA RC H 2014 4 Share Share
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3/19/2014 MH370: Lessons in human nature - Livemint
http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/vaeI6a6rMgmU34Dc7cZ6TK/MH370-Lessons-in-human-nature.html 1/4
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Latest News
01:00 AM IST
Debating the debacle
12:44 AM IST
TCS warns of weak Q4,
but says 2014-15 will be
good
12:43 AM IST
How different are the 2014
elections?
12:36 AM IST
We need tough defamation
laws: NDTV’s Prannoy Roy
12:35 AM IST
There should be good
growth in the US in 2014
and beyond: Marianne
Lake
Editor's picks
Hope fuels market rally,
but will it last?
Vladimir Putin annexes
Crimea but says won’t
seize other Ukraine
regions
The story of the Malaysian Flight MH370 that dropped off the radar more than a week
ago is a dramatic and tragic story with global stopping power. Photo: AFP
The weather was good. The plane, a Boeing 777, left on time. Flight control
tracked it on the radar when the pilot said ‘All right, good night’. Then there
was nothing.
The story of the Malaysian Flight MH370 that dropped off the radar more
than a week ago is a dramatic and tragic story with global stopping power. It
shot straight to the news headlines around the world. All big news websites
in India covered it, as did the media in other parts of the world.
Most people who heard about it developed a theory of what happened. It
was a terrorist attack. A hijack. The body was torn open by material
weakness, pulverizing the plane. It encountered aliens. We find affirmation
or refutation of our theory in the findings of big news agencies, the
Malaysian press conferences and the global aviation experts who give their
opinions. And so we participate in a mystery plot unfolding live, like a
multimedia global reality version of the board game Cluedo.
It is a tragic story that draws our attention to several traits of human nature.
First of all, the story shows that we have a tremendous capacity for
empathy. We get hooked to the sadness of complete strangers. Despite our
ever-deepening immersion in our individual digital bubbles, we empathize
with the sorrow of the victims’ families. We imagine what we would feel in
their place. We can feel their horrendous desperation and frustration that
FIRST PUBLISHED: TUE, MAR 18 2014. 11 36 PM ISTHOME » OPINION » THE PITCH REPORT
MH370: Lessons in human natureThe story of the Malaysian Flight is a reminder of the fragility of our existence
Tjaco Walvis
MOST READ
Thailand gives radardata 10 days afterMalaysia Airlines planelost
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India to appeal againstItaly court’s order onAgustaWestland dealguarantees
Make the best use ofyour initial salaries
2002 riots: Zakia Jafriappeals against cleanchit to Modi
19 MARCH 2014
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3/19/2014 MH370: Lessons in human nature - Livemint
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officials have been clueless for so long. We place ourselves in the shoes of
the 239 people on board. If our theory is that an accident happened, we
imagine what it must have been like to be on that plane when fate struck.
We may mix the images in our mind’s eye with memories of the fear we felt
during a flight with particularly bad turbulence. If we assume a hijack, we
may see flashes of blockbuster movies, like Air Force One.
Second, the tragedy underlines that we are curious like crazy. We can get
addicted to news updates. Some people roam all global news sites to find
the latest snippets, updates, rumours and conspiracy theories. And news
media diligently feed our craving for information. We are being educated on
what a transponder does, how radar tracking works and are even invited to
help analyse the satellite images of the suspected region of a potential
crash. We are told to wonder how a plane can disappear nowadays with so
much technology at our disposal. We absorb it because we have to know
the solution to this baffling mystery, a final answer which has been withheld
from us for so long.
Third, there is the feeling of transcending political divisions for a common
humanitarian cause. We read about 24 countries in the region normally
locked in territorial disputes working brotherly together to trace the lost
plane. We feel a sense of warmth that despite opposing political interest, all
of us are also fundamentally human and can always meet each other at that
level. It is an encouraging interpretation of events, even though this sugar-
coating is no doubt encouraged for PR purposes by the countries in
question as well.
Yet, underlying all the attention is of course a deeper force, which is not
readily discussed. It is the fear of our own death. The story of the Malaysian
Flight is a reminder of the fragility of our existence also. Our minds tell us
that it could have been us. And this fear can override the reality: that the
statistical odds of expiring in a plane crash are tiny. And yet we are sensing
that disaster can strike at us too. We never know when. We want to know
the real story of what happened and what caused it, because we want to
get a grip on the terrifying possibility of suffering a similar fate. We need to
calm our own existential fears, peeked by this distant calamity. We expect
officials to take new measures, to prevent this tragedy from occurring again,
so that we can mentally close this episode for ourselves.
Airlines offer impeccable service, great food, comfort, on time delivery,
correct baggage handling, low ticket prices, etc., to help us forget that flying
will, for humans, always remain a flirtation with death—even though it is
statistically safe. We have big brains, which allow us to fulfil what once was
an elusive dream: for man to fly like a bird. But it is not nature that has
given us wings, we ourselves have. The real lessons are that whatever the
causes of the Malaysian Flight tragedy will turn out to be, it held so many
people in its grip because it reminded us of our own eventual demise. The
Malaysian Flight kept us in that awareness without release for many days in
a row. And it is a feeling that we simply cannot stand.
Tjaco Walvis is the managing director of brand consulting and advertising
agency THEY India, and a speaker at the Outstanding Speakers’ Bureau.
He writes a fortnightly column on the softer cultural aspects of marketing
that often tend to be ignored by marketers.
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3/19/2014 MH370: Lessons in human nature - Livemint
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airlinessuck • 3 hours ago
"Airlines offer impeccable service, great food, comfort, on time delivery, correct baggage
handling, low ticket prices" : huh? which world / era are you talking about?
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