Dumb ways to die.. So many dumb ways to die..
Set fire to your hair
Poke a stick at a grizzly bear
Eat medicine that's out of date
Use your private parts as Piranha bait
Dumb ways to die
So many dumb ways to die
Dumb ways to die-ie-ie
So many dumb ways to die
Have you played the game the dumb ways to die? It starts with above lyrics which still ruminates my mind. It really feels like a joke, when we sing about so many dumb ways to die. And in real life it is far from a total lie. There are so many dumb ways to die. This article is about so many dumb ways to die and to open our eyes on reflection on life that we live.
If you own a phone nowadays it is not very difficult to see the death on it. We see these dumb videos among many other Netflix specials, and you tube shorts. Often Isolated, and often we just have a look and pass them on. But I have selected few to discuss some aspects about life and death.
Dumb Ways to die, Kerala elephants.
I am a fan of elephants. So often I watch elephant videos. Mostly these magnificent, majestic animals are calm and smooth. They graze on a land. Slowly moving like boulders on wild trails and riverbeds. But human conflicts with these are growing large specially when their natural habitats are invaded. Occasionally I have seen a guy crushed by an elephant. But it is on you tube I saw a man actually getting killed by an elephant.
Kerala elephants on rampage, often these videos are nothing but an elephant running on a road. But there was one video in which a domesticated elephant was on rampage. Surrounded by hundreds of people the elephant was aggressive and chasing people. And the mahouts are trying their best to keep the animal calm and collected. They try to restrain him. Once or twice a man almost got trampled by the elephant and narrowly escaped. This went on a few minutes, and I noticed one brave mahout who also helped others to escape, suddenly got hit by the elephant. And he was down in a fraction of a second. next second he was tossed over like a rag doll. That is only thing which can describe it. In a fraction of a second from a fully grown functional human being he went into a rag doll. And elephant kept tossing his lifeless body here and there. And I could see, he is lifeless as the joints were broken and they moved with unnatural bends, covered with dust. And it reminded me of the body I possess is not much different from a rag doll. There is only a fraction of a second need it to become a one.
We are just lucky.
Another scene which I saw, accidently is from a Facebook video. Trust me I have watched all the Saw movies and brutal killings in videos. Which are as true as possible. However on that video I saw a man being shot by terrorists. But it was slow motion. And fact that this was true account. I saw the man who was alive and in fear, going from live to dead in slow motion with a bullet. And it shocked me to the core. I started crying like a child and I could not stop for half an hour. Maybe I was not tough guy after all. And to this day, it is estimated that one person is executed in every minute on earth. How many so far today? We only hear about only a handful. If we take into account accidents, this number will be staggeringly high. So, even walking on the road is a risk on its own. So, we are just lucky not to get killed today. And life is fragile like a drop of dew on grass.
I can give you so many stupid ways to die, which I have encountered in my life. Most recent being my Neighbour killed by crush injury from a lorry which fell on him when the Jack got jammed. He was a mechanic at a garage. So, the real question is how to stay alive when so many dumb ways are there to die?
To stay alive as a species.
Reproduction is the way to stay alive as a species. Truely speaking reproduction is one way to divide living from non-living. But if you go deep into the mechanism of reproduction, it is essentially a chemical reaction. One giant chemical reaction. Like everything else which is happening in our body. And at molecular level nothing is in our control. We can adjust macroscopic parameters of it and wait everything will fall into place. That is how far we have control over to stay alive as a species. And we cannot even 'Think' that it is our duty to survive as a species. Imagine nobody automatically gets these thoughts about our opposite sex as a craving. Do you think we would be focused on surviving as a species at all. Not at all. We all would be either running for other optimal experiences and that would be the end of the humanity. So, surviving as a species is not in our control. It is already programmed as a craving in ourselves.
Surviving as an individual.
Surviving as an individual is a game, which is lost even from the beginning. No matter what, we will be ending up at the bottom of the river. If you would like to read more about this, Life as a floating leaf is a good place.
Here in this article, I have also discussed about possibilities of outcomes afterlife.
So, what is it? What is the meaning if survival is not an option and not under our control? I hit a wall when I think about this question. I get around this question by looking at it. Maybe 'we' are not to be survived after all. Maybe there is no 'me' to survive in the first place. (most important question to ask)
How are you going to survive? How would you answer such a question. Or would you just forget the question and live until the day comes that you end up in your dumb way of death?
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