Jiya Kohar Week 10: Permadeath
I wonder how much trust you have to have in yourself to embark on multiple suicide missions each year, even with a wife and two kids at home? Alex Honnold is arguably the best free solo rock climber who ever lived. He regularly embarks on gargantuan climbs in some of the hardest places in the world…without any protective gear.
I wonder if the adrenaline and epinephrine of spraying bullets and blood for years at a time makes returning to “normal” life fall severely flat compared to the glory of your prime years? On May 2, 2011, members of the infamous Navy SEAL Team Six infiltrated and killed the mastermind behind the terrorist organization al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden.
The same questions apply to the multitude of people who engage in dangerous and hyperarousing activities such as cave diving and professional boxing.
Some people are naturally attracted to danger and adventure, but I find it hard to understand the people who torture their nervous systems to the furthest extent. All the activities I mentioned above are mostly the result of free will, but excruciatingly dangerous.
Why do some people constantly, and willingly, put themselves in the constant state of insane danger, and what does that mean about the control they have over themselves?
Maybe, in some way, these people operate the same way drug addicts do. This famous duck shows the result of constant drug usage, but it can be applied to these profound risk takers as well. Maybe they chase the high of danger the same way drug addicts chase substances. While taking drugs is widely acknowledged as destructive, extreme risk taking can be just as consuming, and, in some cases, just as life threatening. In both cases, the drug option is clearly more destructive.
But, however experienced Alex Honnold may be, he still puts himself in semi-irresponsible situations. Though free solo climbing is his passion and he is undeniably talented, I can’t help but think he is slightly reckless.
In other situations like SEAL Team Six, the risks are necessary. At the end of the day, someone is needed to execute the missions for the (perceived) greater good of this country.
By contrast, it’s hard for me to see a necessity in climbing colossal structures without any protective gear. Sure, it’s how he makes a living. But I would argue that, with two children, especially under the age of four, it’s deeply irresponsible to constantly place yourself in situations where a single minute mistake or miscalculation could so easily result in your death. Why not just throw on the harness? It doesn’t make your accomplishment any less grand, but it could be the difference between children who grow up without a father and those who do. Do his thoughts tell him that his feats are insignificant without putting his life on the line?
At some point, the same “mastery” over fear eventually becomes submission to it and, maybe, Mr. Honnold has more physical power than mental.
Was this blog written because of Honnold’s recent Taipei 101 free climb? I was watching a replay of his journey upwards and couldn’t take my eyes off despite my second-hand stress. A whole 1,667 feet up a tower consisting of several trapezoidal structures with a negative incline is just mind-blowing, not to mention the burning sun and high winds that would’ve made me suffer just on ground level.
ReplyDeleteAs for risk-takers and drug addicts, aren't both groups in fundamentally different situations? Although taking risks and drugs may have the same psychological effects, it’s hard to compare the two when the circumstances are so vastly different. Whether or not the damaging nature of drugs is recognized by the user, recklessness can't be applied to people who don’t have the same freedom of choosing unassisted withdrawal without facing potentially lethal consequences.
I also find the fear from possibly dying to overwhelm any excitement from doing dangerous stunts. However, I’m sure Honnold fully understands the devastating aftermath if something unfortunate were to happen, and it’s not like anyone can stop him from pursuing what he enjoys. This course of action may be unfathomable to the majority of the human population without the same determination to engage in dangerous activities, but admiring these daredevils for their bravery is the least people can do to show their support.
Hi Jiya!
ReplyDeleteWhen you mentioned Osama Bin Laden, I immediately thought about the Madonna hard drive that was found in his hiding spot when the military found him. You learn something new every day!
The first time I heard of Alex Honnold was literally last week when I watched the stream of him climbing the building in Taipei while making dinner. I had to click off as it gave me so much anxiety I couldn’t bear to watch the stream in full. It reminded me of the guy who illegally performed a tight rope walk between the Twin Towers back in the 1900s.
I definitely agree with your claim that thrill seekers and drug addicts are one in the same in certain aspects; putting your life in constant danger for the euphoric feeling for around two seconds sounds like something both would do. The most amount of thrill-seeking I would do is to go on roller coaster.
But when reading your blog, I kept on thinking about Frank Langdon from The Pitt as he is both a thrill seeker and a drug addict in the show. I have been utterly obessessed with this show for the past two weeks so please bear with me.
Langdon is an ER surgeon who, in the first season literally only tries to take patients with high levels of trauma to the body as he enjoys the rush of doing surgery and saving lives, he has a feud going on with a new intern because she is exactly like him. Santos (which is her name) is hell bent on trying to perform surgery (intubation) and actively passes certain cases to try and get in on the action of surgery.
Anyways back to Langdon, he is also a drug addict who is stealing medicine from his place of work (which is a crime!!!). So we as the audience are now looking back on the scenes with Langdon and now realizing that he was high while treating and cutting open patients. One of the residents even calls Langdon an “adrenaline junkie,” which he meets with a defensive attitude. I really enjoyed your blog this week!
While most people tend to avoid placing themselves in precarious situations, there will always be a select few who do reckless things because they want to, and in this specific case for Alex Honnold, I wonder if it is a pursuit of fame and a want for people to pay attention that drives him, or a want to see if he can actually achieve it.
ReplyDeleteOftentimes, people do crazy things just to see if they can, and that is how we end up with humanity’s most mindblowing feats, like space travel. While we are well-accustomed to space travel and are fairly used to it, imagine being in the past and looking up at the endless seeming sky, and going “I’m going to build a ship and go up there one day.” This recklessness may be dangerous, but the want to achieve the impossible can also serve as a virtue because it can lead to progress
There’s a term—“adrenaline junkies”—that I remember, and I feel that this connects a lot to your point about the similarities of thrill seekers and drug addicts. For adrenaline junkies, they do dangerous stunts because they crave the adrenaline that happens as a result of those stunts, which is extremely similar to how drug addicts crave substances.
Hello, Jiya! I love the title of your blog, I think it provides a sort of answer to the questions you ask in it. I don’t know if it’s intentional, but your title guided most of my thoughts, and I feel the need to share them.
ReplyDeleteAs much as I agree with your assertion that people like Alex Honnold are adrenaline seekers and are reckless, I think they really are trying to avoid permadeath. All of these people are trying to make their mark on history, so that they will not be forgotten in the future, when they are decaying and dust in the ground. That would be a true permadeath, where your existence is not even remembered. Mr. Honnold certainly has avoided permadeath, with his groundbreaking feat of free soloing a building (a really tall one too), and his documentary cementing his fame as one of the most famous climbers ever. It feels like other people are trying to avoid permadeath in their own ways, with Team Six avoiding it by becoming intertwined with a part of American history.
While certainly, some people are just pursuing dangerous activities for the adrenaline, I couldn't help thinking of permadeath when reading your blog. Maybe aside from the adrenaline rush, some people are just desperate to leave their mark in history, so that when they die, they do not remain forgotten—so they embrace these reckless activities, doing everything they can to avoid permadeath.