Are we a nation of sicko's?

threebeards

I'm sure most people heard on the news yesterday about the tragedy of a house fire in Castlebar which claimed the lives of a father and his young daughter. A horrible thing to hear under any circumstances but when it happens in your home town, it really rocks you to the core. In the aftermath, I was very annoyed at what happened. I had 2 seperate accounts of this from 2 friends of mine who both live in the estate where it happened. From 9.00 yesterday morning, "a continuous procession of cars" went into the estate for a look at the scene. By lunch time, against the orders of the Gardai, the residents placed a barricade at the entrance which was manned by 2 residents at a time. From 2.15 to 10.00 last night, they turned away nearly one thousand cars. One of my mates said that some of the "visitors" were genuine - arriving with bouquets of flowers, but most were rubber neckers and weren't impressed with not being let into the estate for a look. Is it just me or does anyone else find that sort of behaviour disturbing?

ferdi

its just a fascination for the morbid, its pretty normal

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

It's just people being selfish ****, not thinking of how the family/neighbours must feel and just wanting to get a look at the "awful tragedy" for themselves so they can go "oooh, aaah that must have hurt".

a thousand cars though, jesus.

country_gurl

sadly its a regular occurance, people want to be in on the tragedy so when someone asks them they can say "god i was there and blah blah" and it makes them feel all high and mighty. It was a terrible tragedy and i'd like to pass on my respects to that little girl who is still alive and will have to live with it every day whereas the "well wishers" will be on to a new site next week. I know its a bit different but when you pass a car crash on the road, everyone has a gawk.

seamus

They've nothing else to do in Mayo. Any excuse to get out of the house

stevenmu

It's like when there's a funeral and the whole town turns up, even people who didn't know the person or their family. I've been to a few where people who shouldn't have even been there would sit up in the first few rows and friends and family of the deceased would end up near the back or standing.

ShiverinEskimo

A lot of people take an interest in other people's pain/misery/embarrassment.

TV: You've been framed, Alright on the night, When stunts go bad.
Sport: When 100 people were asked what their favourtie part of watching F1 racing is, 90 said "the crashes".

Do we use other people's misfortunes to make ourselves feel better and be able to say "I'm not the most unlucky person in the world as long as worse things happen to other people".

Sick? Yes. Human Nature? I think so...

mike65

seamus wrote:

They've nothing else to do in Mayo. Any excuse to get out of the house

Some truth in that I think. In this country ppl turn up to funerals when they only "knew" the deceased to wave to in the car. One of those things which show Irelands modernity is skin deep in many respects.

Mike.

cilamc

The thread title made me think of this...

http://www.qwghlm.co.uk/other/dailymail.php

Yes, people have always been inclined to take an interest in morbid things - not sure how that came about, but there it is. It's not that surprising, is it?