People are stupid. Sometimes that is the only way to describe how certain things can happen. Especially is this so when panic, stress or hormones kick in which often serves only dilutes whatever common sense is left remaining.
A couple of examples:
In 2001 gasoline prices have never been higher. There is no immediate relief in sight for this to change. Yet in North America the car manufacturers have discountinued many of the fuel efficient lines of vehicles. Why? the majority of the public are buying SUV's/ Now this includes people in metropolitan areas. So on the city streets where there is no off road conditions, no snow, etc, people are driving four wheel drive vehicles with huge engines huge consumption greater than many of the cars made back in the 70's. So they pay more for gas, use more gas, and are willing to pay premium prices for these vehicles(often double or triple that of fuel efficient vehicles). Can you call this anything other than stupid??
A guy is walking through the woods, and accidentally steps on a snake. He applies a tight tourniquet to his leg and proceeds to walk 45 minutes back to his car. he drives to the closest hospital only to see a large line at the emergency ward so he proceeds to drive 2 hours to his home and the local clinic, He is seen right away since his leg is now black. He is rushed to an Operating Room and his leg is amputated mid thigh. He never released the tourniquet for over 3 hours (it only takes 6 minutes without oxygenated blood for tissues to start dying).. oh and then he was told the snake wasn't venomous. How else could you explain this... yep stupid.
A guy stumbles across a car accident where someone has hit a hydro pole and a live wire is draped across the roof of the car. Our local brainiac decides that since he has rubber soles on his shoes he can pick up a dry branch and knock the wire off the car. He died from electrocution...yep you got it... stupid mixed with testosterone.
Someone starts to choke on a piece of food while in a restaurant. they can't speak, cough or breathe. What do they do? They run and hide in the bathroom where no-one is around to help them? Once again... stupid
A guy coming back from the change room at a public beach sees a guy hovering over his girlfriend with his hands on her chest, moving up and down counting. He rushes over spins the guy around and proceeds to punch him out. The stranger was performing CPR on the girlfriend. This boyfriend was so busy reverting to prehistoric grunting and "ugh..must protect woman ..uggh" mode that he failed to consider that this person might have actually been helping the situation. Yet another testosterone enraged act of stupidity.
Oh but son't go thinking this is limited to men (ours are just more predominant acts of stupidity).
A woman driving along a super highway (8 lanes of traffic in each directioncuts across three lanes of traffic to the shoulder of the road. She then proceeds to back up over 2 kilometres (weaving into the right hand lane on several occasions) resulting in three accidents from those trying to avoid her. Why did she do this 'stupid' thing? She saw an empty cardboard box on the side of the road that she felt would be the perfect size to store a picture frame at her home. Upon further questioning by the police, she the remembered she had the original packaging in her garage from when she bought the picture.
Okay I know some are going to say the word stupid is rather harsh and very jaded on my part. While I have not lived as long as some of the ancient of days people here (oh you know who you are), I have experienced a lot. Very little surprises me. I consider the above to be a somewhat sacrastic but also realistic approach to people in general. If you expect acts of silliness, stupidity, you will never be caught off guard when it happens.
While doing work for the Service Desk at bethel, this opinion was reinforced. Elders, Co's followed this rule regularly. Some of the regular correspondents fell into this category as well. Ome last example. On a regular basis branches in affluent countries receive over 200 pieces of mail per week from individuals in poorer countries looking for handouts. Often the story is word for word (child dying of rare disease must fly to america for treatment etc.) in some cases 5 letters are received in one mailing all signed by different people with exactly the same return address. They all claim to be JW's in good standing too! In fact some close their letters with "Your faithful fellow worshipper in Christ, Our prayers continue to be with our Pope and all the holy saints. I thank the Virgin Mary for all our blessings and your expected kindness." Yep you got it yet again...stupid!!!
I am sure everyone here can continue with "stupid" stories.
Am I wrong?
Kismet
The above examples are true. All are based on either personal experience, experiences read in the media, personal observation and experiences related while teaching First Aid/CPR courses. I could go on for hours with even more.