You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy™
Blame.
In this case, Shark Men accused of attracting sharks and killing a local surfer.
This story is crazy on multiple levels.
First, a young surfer was attacked and killed.
Secondly, it affirms that nobody can ever accept what happens without blaming someone.
In this case, locals are blaming the Shark Men.
The National Geographic show was in South Africa studying sharks, catching sharks, tagging and releasing sharks.
Sharks don’t normally climb onto the deck of research ships, so to entice the animals to the boat, the show producers reportedly throw a meaty broth of chum into the sea.
Some condemn this practice. Others say how else are you going to study sharks?
Chum brings sharks like fertilizing the lawn with chocolate Easter Eggs brings neighbor kids to the wicked witches house.
3 days later there’s a tragedy.
A young surfer is hanging ten when he is devoured by a great white.
3 days later. The Shark Men are blamed for the death.
Facebook – the vomitorium of instant thought – people immediatley associate chum, sharks and death.
Blame!
It’s the transitivie property of blame.
That’s like associating Chocolate Cake, Rosie O’donnel and Flatulence. It’s a plausible conclusion, but an unfair assumption.
No asteroids have crashed into the Earth in years. If it happens are we going to blame Rosie O’donnel for throwing off the gravitational force of the Earth?
Will we blame sharks? How about chum tossers?
Probably.
“It is an accident,” Professor Peter Klimley says. “they were there 4 days prior to the attack.”
It’s the ocean. It’s expansive and changing. It is a living, undulating super market of food.
You think some scraps of bloody meat is going to alter the food chain?
That’s like putting an eye dropper of mustache remover in an olympic pool and expecting Mark Spitz not to win a gold medal.
The Cape Town environmental agency says the chumming and attack have no correlation.
National Geographic has not renewed another season of Shark Men.
Coincidence?
Here’s the reality. Surfers get eaten by sharks. That’s what sharks do. They eat surfers and license plates and sea lions. Sharks eat while they swim and sleep. They never stop hunting and moving and if you are a surfer, you might get eaten.
I would not recommend frolicking in a primordial food chain.
I’m sorry the 20 year old died. But to blame a film crew for his death is wrong.
We live in a world where nobody takes responsibility for anything anymore.
We sue and point fingers and get on social networks and spit accusatory venom without knowledge or rationale or proof.
A shark kills a surfer. Family mourns. Show cancelled.
It’s sad, but it is what it is.
And that is crazy.™