Rubbernecking: Right or Wrong?

[hooplala]

I rail against people rubbernecking at accidents all the time, well not ALL the time, but often enough that I probably become more tedious than I already am, but a co-worker and I were talking about gruesome accidents today during lunch (this is the kind of shit we talk about) and he argued with me a bit that it was completely natural to want to look at stuff like that. 

His point was that ALL animals, given a chance, will check out a corpse... and not only check it out, check it out at length.  besides that, he thinks thats its not so much gruesome or ghoulish for someone to do that, but life affirming or a celebration of life.  Sort of a "There, but for the grace of chance, go I."   

He thinks this is also why gory horror movies are important culturally. 

I'm torn.  I can sort of see his point, but at the same time if I was beheaded publicly by a falling sheet of aluminum, I really wouldn't want people gawking at it... but then again, I will be dead, so who cares?

Thoughts? Opinions?

[Jenne]

I think it just IS.  It's totally annoying on the highway or something, and hurtful if you're the one IN the accident, but I think it's totally natural as a human condition.  We seek out the gore, the ugly and the bizarre.  The safety of the distance between this gore and ourselves makes it more attractive, even.  There are those that are sickened and so don't seek the thrill of that sort of exposure to death, destruction and "the other" that is our flesh and seeing it all discombobulated, but those people are, to me, more fearful than your average bear.

[Eater of Clowns]

I've been in traffic jams for over an hour caused by people slowing to see what's happening on the other side of the highway.  That is not fucking okay.

Otherwise it's perfectly natural and okay to rubberneck, if you aren't making it worse by doing so.  If the person involved is worrying about other people looking on, they're lucky to not have been involved in something that would otherwise completely capture their intention.

[Cramulus]

after I've been waiting in traffic for 20+ minutes because of people looking at an accident, I feel like I earned a glance too.

[Eater of Clowns]

I rail against people rubbernecking at accidents all the time, well not ALL the time, but often enough that I probably become more tedious than I already am, but a co-worker and I were talking about gruesome accidents today during lunch (this is the kind of shit we talk about) and he argued with me a bit that it was completely natural to want to look at stuff like that. 

His point was that ALL animals, given a chance, will check out a corpse... and not only check it out, check it out at length.  besides that, he thinks thats its not so much gruesome or ghoulish for someone to do that, but life affirming or a celebration of life.  Sort of a "There, but for the grace of chance, go I."   

He thinks this is also why gory horror movies are important culturally. 

I'm torn.  I can sort of see his point, but at the same time if I was beheaded publicly by a falling sheet of aluminum, I really wouldn't want people gawking at it... but then again, I will be dead, so who cares?
Thoughts? Opinions?

This is a big difference I have.  If I were beheaded publicly by a falling sheet of aluminum, I'd want there to be as much gore and splatter as possible.  I would want gawkers getting sick to the mess and unable to describe which piece of me was strewn on their stupid fucking outfits.  And I'd want one little kid to just stand there and go "THAT WAS AWESOME."

[Jasper]

I rail against people rubbernecking at accidents all the time, well not ALL the time, but often enough that I probably become more tedious than I already am, but a co-worker and I were talking about gruesome accidents today during lunch (this is the kind of shit we talk about) and he argued with me a bit that it was completely natural to want to look at stuff like that. 

His point was that ALL animals, given a chance, will check out a corpse... and not only check it out, check it out at length.  besides that, he thinks thats its not so much gruesome or ghoulish for someone to do that, but life affirming or a celebration of life.  Sort of a "There, but for the grace of chance, go I."   

He thinks this is also why gory horror movies are important culturally. 

I'm torn.  I can sort of see his point, but at the same time if I was beheaded publicly by a falling sheet of aluminum, I really wouldn't want people gawking at it... but then again, I will be dead, so who cares?
Thoughts? Opinions?

This is a big difference I have.  If I were beheaded publicly by a falling sheet of aluminum, I'd want there to be as much gore and splatter as possible.  I would want gawkers getting sick to the mess and unable to describe which piece of me was strewn on their stupid fucking outfits.  And I'd want one little kid to just stand there and go "THAT WAS AWESOME."

I feel similarly.  I have said before that if I must die, let it be on prime time television. 

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I can't rubberneck. I drive by with my gaze fixed straight ahead, praying that I will not accidentally see something horrible out of the corner of my eye.

[Reginald Ret]

Though i would be very interested to see all the gore and stuff i refuse to be an annoyance to those actually trying to help in that situation.
So i get the fuck out of the situation.
It's the least you can do. The las time i was in such a situation i had to drag some younger friends away because they wanted to see the fight.
I hope my speech about either helping or getting out of the way of those helping got through to them.

[Whatever]

I have to admit, I'm a gawker. My first husband used to threaten to pull over so I could get a closer look.

I agree that it's natural. Like kids and scabs. EWWW now but I remember.

I'm so damned anal that I'm early enough that losing some time doesn't really stress me. So I don't have the added stress of wanting to be somewhere and time is essential.

[Disco Pickle]

annoys me to no fucking end and am glad that I have lived in my city long enough to know the roads to take to get around the monkeys who enjoy watching other people's suffering and making those of us who don't get their kick from it suffer even more.

[Eater of Clowns]

annoys me to no fucking end and am glad that I have lived in my city long enough to know the roads to take to get around the monkeys who enjoy watching other people's suffering and making those of us who don't get their kick from it suffer even more.

It might say something to your own outlook that your assumption is that it's an enjoyment of suffering and not a hope or relief that there isn't any.

[Disco Pickle]

annoys me to no fucking end and am glad that I have lived in my city long enough to know the roads to take to get around the monkeys who enjoy watching other people's suffering and making those of us who don't get their kick from it suffer even more.

It might say something to your own outlook that your assumption is that it's an enjoyment of suffering and not a hope or relief that there isn't any.

It might.  If I hadn't read the previous replies to this thread about seeking out the gore, or known far too many people in my time who actually like knowing someone had a worse day than they did to make themselves feel better or give them perspective, then I might even say it was an unreasonable outlook.

[Lies]

I think we should encouraging rubber necking AS LONG as its not getting in the way, fucking bystander effect, someone could have their life saved by a rubber necker, as long as they're not *just* rubbernecking and actually trying to *do something*.

[Lies]

And I don't mean taking pictures so they can tweet about it.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I think part of that might be the impulse behind rubbernecking, honestly. Some shit goes down on my street, people all run outside. I know for absolute fact that if someone needed help my neighbors would be on it.