Reflections on 4U 9525

Over the weekend I listened to an interview with a brain researcher who made two statements that really stuck with me.

The first was that humankind is the only being in the animal kingdom that is fully aware that it will eventually die, and yet has built in a defence mechanism that somehow manages to deal with that reality and generally does so without cracking.

The second thought was that perhaps that the very ability to build that construct is also what allows people to create walls in their minds to combine seemingly incongruous actions.  I refer to torturers and their ilk that happily go home every night to their families where they are perceived as wonderful loving parents and spouses, and yet in the morning go off and commit brutal acts against humanity as thugs in police or military units.

I believe the interview was taped before the Germanwings disaster so there were no references to the crash.  Despite this the actions of the pilot somehow fit in to the discussion. Although this interview was concerned with the workings of the brain as a series of chemical reactions which are governed or at least tempered by the creation of cultural umbrellas under which civilisations function in normal circumstances, it hinted loudly that cultural mores were necessary but not sufficient to ensure that an individuals actions didn't go beyond the accepted norms.

There was of course the usual nurture versus nature argument, but essentially the researcher's take was that it is a mixture of the two.

But it did segue into the plane disaster.

There has been a lot of talk as to the mental state of the pilot. He suffered from depression. Apparently he had had suicidal thoughts. But in none of the documents made public to date was there any indication that he was actively suicidal or that he was harbouring seriously aggressive thoughts towards others.

First and foremost I think on the part of Germanwings, and to a degree Germany as a whole there was some sort of relief that there was not a mechanical failure.

Germany is a highly industrialised nation which takes great pride in its' engineering prowess.  Having a plane crash because of a mechanical fault does not sit well.

And so it was almost with relief that the first reports were of pilot error.

Which then turned to fear.

Pilot error is one thing.  But a suicidal murderer is another.

It breaks every convention that society has constructed to ensure a basic code of conduct.  And for Germany, which has a leaning towards viewing every problem, mechanical or human, as being solvable and therefore avoidable, this pilot's actions cuts deeply in the nation's collective psyche.