Our Generation: Dude, somebody should probably go save her.

So I’m reading a news article (rare) when I come across this article about some chick (is that politically correct?) who got swept away (literally).

I think the point of the article was to confirm that the woman didn’t end up falling off the corner of the earth but it got me thinking about the true  meaning of this video.  You really need to take a minute to watch this. You can start watching at 30 seconds in to get the point.

At first I chuckled the same way as the 99% of the other people watching and filming and did a short belly laugh when the goofy sounding drunk college student said these words

Dude.  Somebody should probably go save her.

So I watched the video again and noticed that not only were there many people standing around on the other side of the torrent but there were a lot of voices near the camera too.

Nobody went to save her.

Then I started thinking about his words ‘somebody’.

Who is somebody?  Isn’t the goofy voice guy somebody?  Oh… I get it.  It’s the ‘general somebody’.  It’s the same ‘somebody’ we blame for all of the mishaps and failings of the world.

“Somebody should run for politics who isn’t corrupt.”

“Somebody should really come up with a win-win way of doing business.”

Somebody‘s best friend is ‘they‘.  They and somebody are clones – one and the same person.

“They should really do something about the government wastage in this country.”

“They should really create legislation to stop large corporations from ruining people’s lives.”

“I heard that they‘ve found a cure for cancer.”

“They should really come up with a kind of computer that has higher security and doesn’t violate you privacy and get lots of viruses.  Oh wait.. they did.”

It’s also interesting to note the use of ‘dude’ in this video.  Is he speaking to his friend, a ‘dude’?  No.  He’s speaking to the ‘general dude’ which in turn means that he’s speaking out loud to himself and anyone else who might like to hear his thoughts.  Here are a few more examples of such usage of ‘dude’:

“Dude! Check out that couple tongue wrestling by the mailbox.”

“Oh, dude.  I can’t believe I forgot my textbook.”

“Dude…. *tokes reefer*… I’m like so stoned.”

So, in a complete sports-commentary-style analysis of Goofy-Guy’s statement:

Dude: I’m now vocalizing and pointing attention my internal thoughts so others can hear and discuss them

Somebody: someone other than myself, the general somebody, the un-faced somebody upon whom I blame for the bad things of the world

should: a word that removes certainty, a conditional recommendation, a suggestion to be considered but not necessarily acted upon

go save her: the command given to go and save this woman from a frozen posterior and possibly death

Why didn’t Goofy-Guy just turn to his friend and say ‘GO SAVE HER!’  It’s obvious she needed saving.  She was rocketing down a street in frozen water, unable to stop, freezing her butt cheeks off.  He didn’t say this because it would project the responsibility and guilt of not doing the right thing onto someone else.  That might make them feel uncomfortable.  And making someone feel uncomfortable in Canada is akin to genocide.

Why didn’t he say “I’M GOING TO SAVE HER!”  Because he didn’t care enough.  The empathy level towards this woman was enough to vocalize concern but not enough to take action.  His conscience at least recognized he should do something but he was more concerned about staying warm and hanging with his friends, while assuming that Mr. Somebody was already taking care of her salvation somewhere down this newly-formed river.

Dude.  Somebody should probably go save her.

Just when you thought Goofy-Guy and Torrential Tracy had been analyzed enough, I started thinking again.  The image of this woman standing strong, yet in an obviously stupid position of risk, and then being swept away to possible destruction stuck in my mind.

Why was Torrential Tracy standing there in the first place?  Why was she trying to cross?  Was she showing her bravery?  Was she late for her class?

And where were her friends of reason standing on the side screaming at her to stop being stupid and come back to safety?  Maybe she was alone.

I started thinking of the foolishness of youth.  We put ourselves in obvious risk of danger every day.  Where are the wise elders to stop us from wading out into the torrents?  Where is the voice of reason?  And when we slip and foolishly get swept into the sea of sin and destruction, where are the people to reach out a hand?

I’m guilty.

I’m the proverbial Goofy-Guy in the video who said:

Dude.  Somebody should probably go save her.

And I’m sorry, Torrential Tracy.