Anarchy Is All Fun Until Someone Loses An Eye
It was hard for me at first to determine my immediate response to this story. Is it amusing because of the man’s stupidity? Is it amusing because of the man’s creativity? Does it provoke feelings of empathy? Or outrage? Is it banal, or is it fascinating? Upon consideration, I think the story actually stirs feelings of resignation coupled with a slight tinge of sadness. Like many ‘headlines’ to be found in the news aggregators today, the story is just plain weird. As an example, take a look at some of the other nuggets listed on Drudge’s site today, I have not made up any of them:
Postal worker caught defecating in yard keeps job, gets new route…
Reality show about swingers…
Zuckerberg Shock: ‘Only meat I’m eating is from animals I’ve killed myself’…
Iron Thieves Caught Dismantling 100 Yards Of Railroad Tracks…
Naked man crashes truck into house, tenant fights off with hammer…
NYC GOES WILD: Man In Briefs, Stilettos Pole Dances On Subway; Flash Mob Dance Party Breaks Out…
Are people becoming more crazy or is it just that there’s more reporting of crazy activity in the Internet age? There’s no question that with the pervasiveness of YouTube, an entire industry of exhibitionists have emerged to display their talents and or eccentricities to the world. It must be hard wired into the human psyche to crave attention and notoriety. Those lucky enough to be endowed with good looks can satisfy this need by going into the entertainment industry. Those not so blessed with obvious looks or talent use the back doors of YouTube or some other such media conduit.
As more and more people vy for other people’s attention, the bar of entry gets higher and higher. Stunts and activities have to become more and more outrageous to merit any kind of attention at all to the jaded consumer. Weird is the new normal. Years ago, some idiots made a film called Jackass, which essentially chronicled the self destructive activities of some Darwin challenging kids. Surprisingly, or not, depending on your take on pop culture, the film became a huge hit. A 5 million dollar ‘investment’ wound up grossing 80 million in ticket sales. Not to mention sequels and spin offs as well as spawning imitators from everywhere. So now, self mutilation, testicular destruction and skull fractures are mainstream entertainment.
In essence, stupid is being glorified and even worse, can be financially beneficial. Somehow, over the past decade or so, the barrier separating people from outrageous, anti-social behavior has been totally removed! It seems that there are no boundaries for what used to be considered decent behaviour. There seems to be very few consequences to ‘coloring outside of the lines’ of society. Heck, if your deed is ridiculous enough, you may even get famous or rich. Those that breach society’s protocols are celebrated as anti heroes rather than being marginalized.
Getting back to this poor guy who emptied cash from ATM machines and replaced them with Xerox notes, I’m sure publicity was not his main intent. He, however probably did consider, “what’s the downside?’ In the big scheme of things, he was probably right. Sure he may get some prison time, but overall, he must have thought it worth a shot. And that is the big risk. When everybody thinks it’s worth the shot and there are no consequences.