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Risking your life for strangers?

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    #32
    OldGoat
    Registered Users Posts: 12,633 ✭✭✭✭OldGoat


    I think that altruism exists as the 'fight' part of the 'fight or flight'reaction and that it's a reaction based on circumstances and proximity. The closer the incident is the more likely you are to respond to it as instinct takes over.
    Altruism makes fools of us all. It makes us run into burning buildings. It makes us face down the bloke with the knife. It makes us rugby tackle the handbag snatcher legging it up the road. It makes us give mouth to mouth with the blood and vomit stained body on the ground.

    Hopefully we come out unscathed on the other side.

    I'm older than Minecraft goats.



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    #33
    helimachoptor
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 21,640 Mod ✭✭✭✭helimachoptor


    Will wrote: »
    Was in a situation few years back, a big gang brawl broke out and the groups splintered and began pummeling all around themselves. One guy was outnumbered and was being beaten, he fell to the ground and was getting kicks to the head. I'm not a macho type, but was just instinctive, jumped up started shouting and running at them. Guy was KO'd so rang for an ambulance, the lads came back but again just went into automatic and started shouting :-/ didn't get hurt or hurt anyone else. Was stupidly lucky but it didn't really enter into my head, just went to his aide.

    Hard to describe.

    For me this is a big issue, I haven't been in many fights but the ones I have I wasn't the aggressor but in all cases when the other guy hits the ground thats it, fight over and thankfully the times where i've been on the ground the other guy/s had the same ethos.

    But I've heard quite a few incidents lately where a guy goes to ground and ends up with 3/4 lads using his face as a football, i'd rather not have that happen to me.


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    #34
    Khannie
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 37,485 Mod ✭✭✭✭Khannie


    I have intervened in the past on the street. I saw a youngfella on the ground and two (obviously very pissed) lads throwing kicks at him. I just told them to leave it out that they'd won and to head home and they did. They didn't look like they were just randomly going to turn on someone (i.e. me) and they didn't.

    Another time myself and a friend hung around when a lad was getting very much in the face of what appeared to be his girlfriend. We just wanted to make sure that she was gonna be ok. In the end they both got pissed off with us so we left them to it.

    Depending on the situation (and I think you can reasonably weigh up any given situation within seconds) and whether or not you've some idea on the background of the situation I would like to think that I'd intervene if I thought someone was going to take a potentially life threatening beating. Sure, I might take a few thumps myself, but I think people worry too much about getting punched in the head. It's not that bad really. I'm not a hard man or whatever (seriously). I've just been hit in the head a lot. :) Before I'd been hit in the head a lot I worried about being hit in the head. Now not so much.

    Mostly I think, for me anyway, that it boils down to doing for others what I'd like them to do for me (or mine).


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