Crikey!
Posted on January 3, 2004 @ 9:35 am
I first read about the recent unpleasantness involving Steve “Crocodile Hunter” Irwin, his one-month-old son, and a crocodile over at Wizbang, but it seems to be popping up everywhere now. On the one hand, the whole incident almost makes sense. After all, if I remember my Crocodile Hunter Lore(TM) correctly, Steve’s father was also a croc wrangler and Steve probably grew up around crocodiles from the time he was an infant. In his mind, having his child around a crocodile is probably far safer than having him riding around in a car seat in the back of the Crocmobile (he does have a Crocmobile, right?) and potentially running off the road and crashing (they do have roads in Australia, right?). Throughout his own little Take Your Son to Work Day, I’m sure that Steve felt that he was in complete control of the situation at all times and that the chances of anything going wrong were slim to none.
On the other hand, how stupid can one man be? While many pundits (ha!) have drawn comparisons between the Crocodile Hunter and Michael Jackson on the baby-dangling front, I think true point of similarity is in their more general shared disconnect with reality. Just like Michael Jackson’s belief–and I really think he believes it–that people will eventually understand why he shares his bed with children if he just explains it enough times, Steve Irwin obviously had a little trouble processing why, if the crocodile stunt was perfectly safe in his professionally-trained mind, the public would find fault in his actions. It’s been awhile since Psychology 101, but I believe this isn’t too far removed from what the experts call cognitive dissonance.
Of course, I seem to recall catching an episode of The Crocodile Hunter a few years back where Steve’s visibly pregnant wife, Terri, was right alongside Steve in the outback, poking at venomous snakes with sticks. Given that context, I can’t say that this most recent bit of news, disturbing as it may be, is a complete shock.
Posted by Jess | Filed Under Pop Culture |
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I find this extremely interesting. Recent experiences in human nature has pointed to this delutional kind of behaviour in many varying degrees and in a lot more people that you would normally think.
The stronger side of it, I believe, manifests itself mostly as forms of sexual deviency. This brings up very interesting questions towards the way that society is moving.
1) How much crap can the mind make itself believe?
2) How long is it before it becomes mass belief and socially acceptable?
“How long is it before it becomes mass belief and socially acceptable?”
Apparently too long. I’ve been asking friends and neighbors if I can borrow their babies for a trip to the zoo for the past three or four days, and I’ve yet to find a taker.
Noone can actually be surprised about Steve Irwin’s idiocy. This is a guy who has raised himself to international stardom by running around in the bush with a camera and harassing wildlife. His private reserve of animals are constantly poked and prodded to produce reactions for spectators. And yet somehow he considers he is a conservationist.
Crikey! If there’s no spotted wallabees around, what are we gonna poke with sticks? Save the Wallabee!