Social media makes it really easy for you to say “take care” when you don’t really care. Yes, I’m very concerned. Yes, I want to help. Where do I click? If only all the things in real life can be settled with just a click. Behind the computer screen, it’s too easy to appear as a pious soul, a caring samaritan or a “rigorously righteous” dentist. We know all the politically correct things to say. It’s so easy to be an online environmentalist, sharing links on global warming on one’s Facebook account and then drive home in a sportscar.
It’s also pretty easy to be a”moralist” arguing for stiffer penalties for all kinds of offences. Someone has even suggested extending the death penalty to family members of the convicted. Death for drug traffickers caught with less and less heroin. How about death for suspected terrorists? Death for their families? Death for the lawyers who defend them? Death for people who abuse cats? No probation for violent youths? Who cares about the convicted? We all want a safer place to live in, don’t we?
Will we have a perfectly sanitised and moral society then? Or will we be so skewed towards one aspect of “morality” while neglecting another? What is morality, really? Is it just about being faithful to one’s spouse, not drinking, not smoking, not littering, not spitting, not gambling, not taking drugs, not going around naked, not taking kickbacks etc? If that’s the case, Singapore should score very high on such criteria. But are we really who we think we are? Do we really know people whom we think are poorer, less educated, more desperate, less likely to follow protocol and hence more likely to do obnoxious things that will make us go Eeeee … like chewing tobacco and not wearing clothes?
I normally post my adventure videos and pictures on Knapsack Treks, but there is a lesson on morality in this particular episode of I Shouldn’t Be Alive. They’re rather long videos. Watch them before you read further.
I was deeply touched by this episode. Just days ago on the same mountain, British climber David Sharp has been left for dead. Other climbers have walked pass him on their way to the summit. Was that immoral? Would you have saved Lincoln Hall if you were in Dan Mazur’s boots? Note that Hall had actually threatened the lives of his rescuers in his confusion and delirium.
How will people respond to that hypothetical question? Given that this is the age of online moralists, you’ll see hordes of folks who have never climbed a mountain or encountered any life-threatening situation on mountains, subject the seemingly selfish and cowardly people on the scene to a virtual stoning session. But what if the situation were real? What if the virtual heroes find themselves in a situation where they need to be real heroes?
The fact that mountaineering is not such a glamorous sport in Singapore means that many of us can afford to be honest. Many Singaporeans think that mountain climbers are crazy people who waste time, waste money and risk their own lives. In some ways, that is true. We are all responsible for ourselves and our families. It’s quite understandable that in a dangerous situation, we take care of ourselves first. Selfless acts are for saints. During the SARS epidemic in 2003, everyone remotely linked to the healthcare industry was avoided like a pesky insurance agent. Were people sincerely thankful to the medical profession? Toothfully, I don’t think so. This is the same sort of mentality that makes people wish death upon people who have the remotest possibility of threatening their lives.
In sharp contrast, the videos above show us that there are heroes on Everest who would not leave someone to die even when he attacked them for rescuing him! They knew he was not of sound mind at that moment and he would be thankful for what they were doing once he regained his senses. Toothfully, these rescuers are not saints. And I would feel safer climbing a mountain with these guys (who may smoke, drink, gamble and sleep around) than with most of the squeaky clean Singaporeans I know.
Mountaineering can be a frivolous, self-absorbing pursuit and there are rogues, ruffians and cheaters in every form staggering up the slopes. But many followers of the unwritten rules and values on these giants make far better role models than our best and most coveted sportsmen/sportswomen/businessmen. To me, these folks fit into a wider, deeper sense of morality – much like the mountains which are a second home to them. As the Chinese have said: 救人一命,胜造七级浮屠. I believe that even if pragmatic Singaporeans make light of these heroes, there will be some form of reward for their sacrifice somewhere, somehow.
