Humans are a peculiar bunch aren’t we? We morn unfortunate things and act like we feel sorry for people, but ultimately we are drawn to tragedy. I’m talking about an event that happened late on Sunday night when a local hardware store’s propane tanks caught fire.
The store, only a stone’s throw away on 103rd and Kedzie Avenue, had onlookers standing by to watch the blaze burn. While the story didn’t break Twitter, the story did become something that a lot of my Facebook friends in the neighborhood felt the need to post pictures of and talk about.
My question in all of this is: why? I understand that a fire occurring at a store that is something of a local staple is a big deal, but why stand outside and watch it happen? Are people so starved for drama that they are willing to stand outside of a store and do nothing while a person’s livelihood ends?
It would be important to note now that the Ace Hardware in question did not burn to the ground and was actually open for business on Monday morning. But, I can’t help but think: what if the store did catch fire? Why would anybody want to see something like that?
I work for a small, independent retailer (yeah, I know you can’t exactly call Ace Hardware an independent retailer, but the store and those inside have a real feeling of a neighborhood staple) and would be absolutely crestfallen if I knew that the place had burned to the ground.
These kinds of businesses have been in the neighborhood for years. They’re practically fixtures of the community. I don’t think I could stand to watch something like that burn to the ground. Maybe I’m a wimp. Maybe I’m wrong to not have the morbid curiosity to run up to a hardware store only half a mile from my house and potentially watch it burn to the ground.
But, that just isn’t my style. I take no joy or interest in watching wreckage and carnage happen. I would like to pose one question to those who did go out and watch: why were you there?
If you thought that watching something like this is entertaining, shame on you. That form of schadenfreude is something that makes no sense.
If you were there as a concerned citizen, that makes a little more sense, but at the same time, what were you going to do about it? You’re not a firefighter. You’re so concerned that you’re actually going to do something about it.
You’re not an insurance worker going to survey the site to make sure the owner’s investment was properly taken care of. But this is indicative of a larger phenomenon. For some reason, people seem to love carnage and mayhem.
I’m not talking about the people who go see disaster movies in 3D Imax because they want to watch Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson save a bunch of people from earthquakes in a movie like San Andreas.
I’m talking about the kind of people who take out their phones when they see a car accident and start recording things instead of checking on people to make sure that they’re OK. Even if you don’t go check on someone to make sure that they’re OK, what is the point of recording something like that?
Do you want to remember that time you could’ve possibly seen someone get seriously injured? I have to admit that I am not 100% without blame when it comes to this kind of stuff. A few summers ago a friend and I were driving down 95th street and saw an abandoned truck in the Home Depot parking lot (What is it with hardware stores and random fires?).
You can bet your bottom dollar that we pulled into the K-Mart parking lot across the street and watched the truck fire hoping that we’d maybe see the car explode. Why? I don’t know. I honestly have no idea. I feel somewhat ashamed for admitting that I wanted to see someone’s car explode, but at the same time how often do you see something like that?
I’m sure there are few who can say that they haven’t slowed down to view the wreckage of a car accident. My question is why do we do this? If you have an idea why, feel free to write in.
Brian Laughran
Editor-in-Chief
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