Eating Your Friends (in Starbucks) Is the Hardest

Over the Andes the plane flew into a thick cloud, and the pilots had to fly by instrument.  Amid the turbulence they hit an "air pocket," and the plane suddenly plunged 3,000 feet.  When the passengers abruptly found themselves below the cloud, one young man turned to another and said, "Is it normal to fly so close?"  He was referring to the mountainside just 10 feet off the right wing.

So yesterday I read this article.  It's called Eating Your Friends Is the Hardest.  Intriguing name, right?  Well it just so happens that this article I had to read for my Sociology class was actually (dare I say it) INTERESTING.  Now, I don't mean that in the cliché student-writing-an-essay-about-a-reading-assignment way: I seriously mean it.  The article was about the survivors of the F-227 plane crash in 1971, and their desperate and controversial resort to cannibalism.  And come on, what could be more interesting than cannibalism?  Especially when you're sitting in Starbucks.  And you just ate a ham-and-egg breakfast sandwich, which you are currently trying to prevent from coming back up.  And the guy sitting behind you is without a doubt taking peeks at your strange choice in reading and is staring you down with an extremely judging and disgusted look.  Oh, what a morning!

I think I'll begin my analysis of the article with a simple yet powerful question: What is cannibalism?  In the literal sense, it is quite obviously the consumption of human flesh.  In today's society, it has been dubbed as disturbing, disrespectful, and inhumane: Generally speaking, cannibalism is frowned upon in almost every culture in today's world.  In other words, the Symbolism (one of three main sociological perspectives we're learning about in class) of cannibalistic behaviors causes the vast majority of people to become naysayers when confronted with the idea.  However deserving of these labels and stigmata may cannibalism be, the survivors of the plane crash of '71 were somehow able to overcome them, and instead activated their logical minds for their desperate desire for survival.

Having to make a decision so terrifying as eating people for survival is just about the epitome of hard decisions.  Of course, some were unable to overcome the initial sense of moral insecurity and gag reflux-inducing repulsion.  These individuals, of course, were the first ones to pass away and become food for those who could more easily stomach the people-meat.  This is a perfect example of a Conflict Perspective, which we have been discussing in class this week.  Those individuals who could eat the human meat of their deceased companions were able to live longer and eventually be rescued.  However, those others who were unable to stomach the meat stood no chance, and soon became a frozen dinner. 

In class, we just finished watching an episode of Freeks and Geeks, and this concept of "Survival of the Fittest", or "Conflict Over Scarce Resources" comes up a lot.  Coincidentally, it can easily be related to this week's reading about the plane crash.  For example, in Freeks and Geeks, the nerdy kids (the non-cannibalistic plane survivors) try to gain the scarce resource of power (food/survival), but are unable because they lack the strength (the ability - whether physical, mental, or spiritual to eat human flesh) to meet the same power level as the bullies (the cannibalistic survivors).  However, the bullies (those who ate the corpses) were the ones who eventually won the fight (survived and were rescued).

Despite the grotesque nature of this article, I cannot express enough just how much I loved reading it.  This whole story kind of revolves around the idea of the ultimate "would you rather" question: Either eating your friend and having your choice nag on your conscience forever, or choosing to die and neglecting your body the nutrition it needs to survive.  This reminds me of some of the compromises I make with myself every day.  Today, in particular, I was feeling sick and was given the suggestion by the nurse to go home and rest.  However, I had to choose between heeding her advice and missing a swim practice (I only get 3 excused before I'm off the team), or accepting my obligation to the team and attending what I knew was going to be a hard practice and probably was going to make me feel even worse than before. I chose to go to practice but, as in the story of the plane crash survivors, mine ended happily.  Because almost half the team was out sick and everyone was tired, my coach decided to be merciful and let us out of practice an hour and a half early!  So I guess for today you could call Coach Bart my "rescue-copter".  For him, I am very thankful.  Maybe almost as thankful as the plane crash survivors were when they were rescued from the Andes!