Easter Island

So I’m writing this while on a flight back home. It got off to a pretty rough start with some immediate turbulence right as we took off. That’s when I started noticing some really interesting reactions from people sitting around me. I fly pretty often so shaky starts are usually no big deal for me but I’ll admit my heart skipped a beat or two this time. But the kid sitting directly to my left is a nervous wreck. He’s all sweaty, smells bad, and honestly looks like he might ask me to hold him. I really hope he’s not reading this over my shoulder…but anyway my point is I guess no one ever explained to him the super low odds of experiencing a plane crash. Or maybe those odds don’t matter to him at all.

In my experience flying, the people with the worst flight anxiety know that the odds are overwhelmingly against any incidents happening. But they’re not afraid because they think something will actually happen. Instead it’s because stepping into that metal tube means that for the next few hours, they have absolutely no control. For the next few hours, they know their fate is undeniably not in their own hands.

And I know a lot of grown adults are seriously terrified of that. As I got older and did more and more flying I started noticing how often adults choose to get drunk at the airport bar or pop some anxiety meds before they board. I’ve been on flights where I was really convinced that at least half of the plane was completely out of it. And it makes sense to me that people make that choice. It’s because when we’re encountered with a serious risk or danger that we have no control over, our natural instinct as human beings is to just tune it out. Out of sight, out of mind. Because why stress over it when there’s nothing you can do? I guess that might be an idea nobody ever shared with the greasy stressball sitting to my left. Anyway when I think about it further, I really believe that this instinct to ignore the problems we can’t prevent applies to dangers we all face as a civilization.

Take the big one, global climate change, for example. The average person genuinely feels like there’s absolutely nothing they can do by themselves to fix that. Everyone has heard of climate change and everyone has heard how the vast majority of the scientific community agrees that it’s a pressing issue. When I was a little kid I was confident that nations around the world could join forces in a unified effort to heroically save our environment. I think maybe I watched a few too many Disney movies with happy endings— because that’s not what happened. What happened instead? I watched a presidential election cycle 3 years ago where climate change was treated like a minor talking point, cast off to the wayside, either completely ignored or only mentioned in passing. Apparently it was more fun to talk about each other’s emails or financial records. Or at least those were things your average Joe felt like he could take a firm stance on.

Most people have been deciding to pretend it’s not really happening. And the whole phenomenon makes me think of what happened to Easter Island. Do you know about Easter Island? If not, it’s an island off the coast of South America known for having an eerie collection of giant head statues. Do you know the story of how those statues got there? I promise it relates to what I was just saying about climate change.

Hundreds of years ago there was a civilization of people called the Rapa Nui that were native to the island. They worshipped their gods by building massive statues in their honor. Their gods always protected them and ensured their survival. And the Rapa Nui never had a reason to doubt their gods. After all, they had kept them alive up until then of course. Anyway the Rapa Nui’s whole economy was reliant on the wood from the island’s rich forests. But the island was isolated in the middle of the ocean so these resources were actually very limited. And over time the islanders noticed the forests were disappearing. Eventually, their resources had run thin and the natives started to panic. So they reacted the best way they knew how. No, they didn’t find new ways to provide for each other. No. They prayed to their gods and built more and more statues. They literally used the last of their wood to keep building statues so the gods would come rescue them. So what happened to them? They ultimately gave up on their gods, turned against each other, starved and died out.

See how it all relates now?

Here’s the point I’m trying to make. I fully acknowledge that my life is in the hands of this pilot. That’s just how it is once you step inside. And for everyone getting on board, we really only have two options. We can either all be drunk and high so nobody even notices if we start plummeting down. Or we can make sure our pilots are damn good, competent and responsible before we take off.

Filip, again.