We often see in stories of rescue in tragedies, how people are able to accomplish extra-ordinary things in time of crisis.
Humans, when faced with disaster and crisis, can do incredible things they might not otherwise do. Just type in "amazing rescue" into your search browser. On a daily basis? No, I'm sure people don't normally haul around mid to large sized dogs, but when faced with a crisis , as can be seen in so many stories from all over the world, people can do incredible things out of necessity. The instincts that underlie our conscious perception of reality can evidence this. Think of how, when you drop something, how quickly your brain communicates all the way down to your muscles in your arms and hands to react. This is simplistic, but that is how we work. How automatic do you find this sort of physical reaction?
Let us move on to adrenaline and endorphins. This knowledge was obtained from an ingenious man named Dr. Ken Sobel from the University I received my undergraduate degree. You have billions of neurons, all interconnected. When you decide to move, say your left arm, your brain sends an electrical signal from your motor (peripheral cortex) an electrical signal that travels from your brain down your spinal cord into your arm that directs it to move.
All of this is orchestrated by neurotransmitters in your brain, two of which being adrenaline and endorphins. Adrenaline is a chemical produced by your adrenal glands. Most people are familiar with adrenaline in that it is what “takes over” in a fight or flight situation. The translation of endorphin is “endogenous morphine,” meaning pain reliever from within. In even the most basic of stressful situations the body releases both of these chemicals. The brains interpretation of pain is called nociception. The afflicted part of your body sends a message to your brain, telling your brain that it feels pain. When the brain is prompted by sensory input (vision, sound, etc) it releases both of these chemicals. Adrenaline is a function of the sympathetic nervous system. This neurotransmitter causes your body to increase your heart-rate, dilate your blood vessels and air passages, among many other functions. Endorphins are a neurotransmitter that blocks the receptors for nociception, thus blocking the conscious experience of pain.
This very natural
process of your body and mind when undergoing stress is the
underlying physiology of how the body responds, and can
endure all sorts of duress when faced with either a fight or
flight situation. The question posed here is, why would the
rescuers of these dogs not adhere to the physiological
properties of their bodies? What CAN be questioned is
whether they choose to fight or take flight, but not that,
upon injury they could not do what they have said.
It is now common knowledge that the veterinarian tending to these dogs has transferred the two hunting dogs into his name, as their human did not survive the earthquake/tsunami. As was reported yesterday (4/25/11) at http://www.ausfox.com/, the wife and son of the owner have been located and advised on the situation concerning the dogs. Unfortunately, they are not able (at the moment) to provide a home, as they are homeless themselves. But they plan, and are making arrangements to keep both dogs. I believe that this takes the story into an entirely different direction. I do not believe that anyone dismisses the fact that these two dogs have touched the hearts of an innumerable number of people all over the world. But perhaps, I believe, people should look into their own heart, and have unbiased compassion for these people who are living in a quite literal personal hell.
There are so many cases of hysteria and interest surrounding stories that become viral on the internet, in no way is this a new phenomenon. I sometimes wonder if people can feel themselves losing their sense of humanity, because it is very evident in the venom that is often spit, that they have lost touch with it. Not that this is not common knowledge, but I believe that no one can possibly comprehend the reality of living in the affected areas of Japan at the moment. There is no sort of personal anecdote that even begins to be on par with the devastation and heartbreak that the people of Japan are enduring. I would even extend that they are even more devastated now that this situation is ongoing, and the light at the end of the tunnel has not yet even begun to glimmer.
We are all aware of the heated debate concerning these two dogs. But I believe that now that the surviving owners have been found, that this has become a completely private matter. No one other than this recent widow and son have any authority to release any information. In light of all that has gone on, the arrogance of wanting to have “closure” by someone so detached from the situation seems so selfish. No one but this widow and her son need closure, and I believe it is selfish to assume otherwise. They have already lost so much, they need this. While I feel for these dogs and the whole of Japan, I am in no way entitled to any sort of closure. My friends and family are still alive, my home is still standing, and I have not been living in an evacuation center for nearly two months. I have not felt the heaviness of the heart that they have. I do not have to wonder “what now?” I have not lost everything, and neither have most people engaged in this debate.
A father and husband have been
lost for these two people. Their home has been lost. Family
and friends have been lost, on a scale I can not even begin
to imagine. I am so happy to learn that these dogs will be
reunited with their families, and that this widow and her
son have a small piece of their husband/father left to hold
dear. My request is this: we all want to know, but we are
entitled to nothing. After all that has been said on the
internet, I fault them in no way to want their privacy,
especially for their own safety. If you have lost it, please
try to find your humanity. It will likely take years to even
begin the physical reconstruction of Japan. If you have a
heart, know that it will take much, much longer than that
for the hearts of the people of Japan. We all need to do
some serious introspection within our own hearts, we need to
find our humanity again, and most of all- we need to let
these people heal, stop spewing venom, and support them.
Hate breeds nothing but hate, and love nothing but love.
The witches of Salem.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
Lindy Chamberlain.
Jessica Lynch.
At first glance these people don't seem to have much in common
– alleged witches, convicted traitors, a bereaved mother, a
soldier. But their stories are connected.
Whispers and lies, hysteria and jealousy convicted the women of Salem. A national terror of a perceived nuclear threat from Russia convicted the Rosenbergs on flawed evidence, and sentenced them to die for crimes that warranted a much milder punishment. Lindy Chamberlain's failure to meet the culture's expectations of what a grieving mother acts like sent her to prison; it took years to unravel her persecutors' flimsy stories and prosecutorial missteps and set her free. Jessica Lynch, who deserved honor for her service, was instead deliberately misrepresented and turned into a poster child for an unpopular war. And in all these cases, the common thread was a larger mechanism that drove fear and mistrust into a toxic fever pitch, sweeping common sense and the truth out the door.
Over the last few years this shoot-first-and-let-God-sort-them-out dynamic has found its perfect breeding ground: the Internet, the very definition of freedom of speech gone to seed.
I'm old enough to have grown up in a time when talking to each other meant you actually had to be in sight of the person you were having a conversation with. At the very least you had to have them on the phone. The cultural conditioning most of us grew up with usually prevented, or at least delayed, our lashing out at our conversational partners. Even now in conversations we might find ourselves becoming angry or suspicious, but our response would be gradual, damped down by our reluctance to fly off the handle. We might feel the urge to unleash a load of invective, but we rarely do it. Certainly it isn't the first thing we reach for in face-to-face conversations.
But in the instant-gratification world of the Internet two factors are at work: immediacy and anonymity. In nanoseconds, we can say the things our real-life manners usually keep us from expressing, and the computer screen gives us a sense of separation from people we're talking to, a feeling of disconnection. It also prevents us from receiving the in-person feedback we count on to understand what we're hearing.
Into this fertile ground drops a seed: a dramatic picture, a piece of film footage, a small story in the midst of great destruction. Emotions run high, in all directions. Someone spins a theory; someone else makes an assumption; yet another person accepts the assumption as fact, gets angry and the dance begins. It can be small, a short, sharp argument that's over as soon as the participants log off. It can be a short-lived misunderstanding.
Or it can become part of a steadily escalating cavalcade of misinformation, innuendo, character assassination – a witch hunt. And it all starts with someone making an assumption and acting on it as though it were fact.
I am omitting the participation of at least one pseudo-journalistic organization in supporting and even creating the fog of half-truths and specious accusations over the last six weeks. As in the Jessica Lynch debacle, violating journalistic ethics is a deliberate act. But that's a discussion for another article. Here I'm talking about the situational dynamics that swept up people around the world who were following this story.
For example:
Smidgin of information: the biker lads didn't go talk to the film crew, they were afraid they'd get in trouble. They sometimes have been on the wrong side of the law before.
Person #1: Wow, they sound like outlaws.
Person #2 (reading #1's comment): Wow, they're outlaw bikers.
Person #2 (reading and leaping): Wow, they're those bad bikers, the 1%ers, the really bad ones!
This is a paraphrasing of a discussion I read about the lads' rescue of the two dogs. The time between posts, from first to last, was a couple of hours. I later saw the same conclusion about the “outlaw bikers” in other conversations on other sites. Before you could say “shameless gossip”, this bit had become part of what “everybody knows” about this rescue.
And this is just one example. In the space of a day or two, the animal-loving blogosphere exploded with accusations, calls for reports to Interpol and the Japanese authorities, and name-calling and infighting of the worst kind. Few of the participants covered themselves with glory, but the worst hate speech was reserved for Mr. Sakurai himself; incredibly, he even received death threats. Death threats? over two dogs that were, as far as anyone knew, alive, safe and being cared for? A friend of mine describes such behavior as Internet psychosis, and after witnessing this free-for-all I can't disagree with him.
So, what's the answer?
I'm an optimistic person. I think that over the long run we tend to navigate the bumps and obstacles, even the ones we create ourselves, and rise to the occasion. I trust the basic goodness our dogs see in us. I believe that if people breathe deeply, take a step back and look at all the available information, give themselves a chance to think about it far from the madding crowd – I think everybody will come to their own conclusions and believe what they choose, and that we can all do that without demanding that everybody else agree with us, or without calling each other's character into question. We disagree, let go of the argument and get back to our lives and to the business of helping the animals who need us.