Comments on: Debate: Death TV

By: nhedhman

nhedhman — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 16:53:31 +0000

Drivers of that era were thrill seekers to the extreme, knowing that every race had a relatively high probability of resulting in their own death. Yet, they continued to race. I recall asking, as an 9 year old, my dad why on earth would someone risk his life to drive a car. Dad had no answer.

Having that in mind, I don’t see anything more wrong with such footage than myriads of others, such as WWII, any war for that matter, fatal accidents in daily life, or real morbid stuff like executions, searching for body parts in aircraft/industrial accidents and so on.

Personally, I think the human race in general and western societies in particular, are too sensitive to death and death related questions. It is like everyone is walking around thinking that they will never die. It only happens to others. We don’t speak of dying or death, never discuss it with children, and so on. Of course, you can find the mentioned footage being morbid, considering your up bringing. “I have a fatal illness.”, and so do you. It is just that we don’t know ‘for how long’… The F1 drivers in the 70s sought to stare Death in the Eye, and denying them these seconds of Glory in Death by prohibiting such view is ill spent humanism.

By: chunter

chunter — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 21:45:56 +0000

The comment I found on Gilles: “The cameraman must have been on crack.”

Sounds like that comes from someone that didn’t understand how difficult auto racing was to televise then (or now).

The comment I found on Senna: “That should carry on.”

It doesn’t of course. Another commenter replies that there really wasn’t much else to see, and actually, the truth about real racing accidents it just that.

I consider it the viewer’s own fault for not learning about the incident before having a look. The truth is, most auto racing deaths are not spectacular wrecks and come from freak-accident uncorrectable mistakes. Please don’t debate whether new safety developments would save these people- it is beside the point.

There’s a sense of fun when anonymous people get hurt doing something that’s honestly not intelligent, but deadly motorsport accidents are not that. The comments above were located quickly, but they were rebuked and relatively few. I don’t think we have anything to worry about here.

Furthermore, it may be best to make sure these events -are- accessible so that kids can see that a man dying in a race car is not interesting viewing. Let them watch skaters take a rail to the crotch instead.

By: Clive

Clive — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 12:56:46 +0000

It’s not appropriate but I don’t see how you can stop it. Try a search for videos of Senna on YouTube and you’ll find half of them are of Imola in 1994. There are websites devoted to Senna’s death, still sifting through the same old stuff. Personally, seeing it once was enough for me and it nearly turned me away from F1. But there will always be sick puppies who find death fascinating – as long as it isn’t their own.