Monday, June 27, 2016

Keep Calm, Don't Carry On

June 27, 2016


A boy fell into a gorilla enclosure at a zoo. A gorilla went to pick him up, but eventually started dragging him around, and keepers were afraid that he’d hurt the boy; so they shot him.

Naturally, people started pointing fingers: The mother was to blame, the zoo was to blame, blah, blah, blah.

Nobody thought much of my idea: That if the onlookers had controlled themselves instead of continuously yelling, the gorilla might not have gotten so agitated, and the keepers would have been able to retrieve the boy safely. It seemed to me like the gorilla started out to help the boy, but then in the ensuing mayhem, he got confused and agitated, leading to his stress reaction and the child’s danger.

So maybe I’m wrong; but maybe next time something like this happens, people could try to overcome their (perfectly natural, I admit) tendency to yell and/or jump around, which will only exacerbate the situation.


Keep calm, don’t carry on.


No comments: