Shattered Dreams

[AWDMANOUT]

My school is participating in a program called ?Shattered Dreams? in the next two school days. This program centers on the dangers and terrors of car crashes, and how alcohol can heighten the chances of such events. It involves a mock crash and a series of announcements on the PA system every 15 minutes, saying that another member of the student body has ?died? and is now another member of the ?living dead?.

I don?t really like it.

As I stood at the back of the mock crash site, admittedly too far back to be able to see anything, I listened to the people around me. Here is a random selection of what some people were doing/talking about:

-Talking about how they disliked the program (insert explicit word for dislike, for more accuracy).
-Listening to music.
-Talking about how cold it was.
-Talking about Satan (honestly).
-Laughing and ignoring the program completely in a group.

Of course some people did watch it, those who were fortunate enough to be able to. But those others, the majority, blatantly disregarded the seriousness and severity of the situation. Why the heck is this? What happened to America?

 

[TheSquirrelisKing]

They made us do this in high school too. It was pretty cool, they had a beat up car all upturned on the lawn, they had firetrucks, they even brought in a helicopter. It was all pretty cool, it really felt like being on the scene of a movie.
But that's all it was. It was fake and we all knew it, and yet somehow they expected us to be horrified? I understood where they were coming from and what they were trying to accomplish, but really it was all just kind of narm.

 

[A random person]

We didn't do it every 15 minutes, but my middle school had something like this. The worst thing it did for me was make me miss a supposedly-interesting conversation in my history class. Of course, that's outweighed by my being able to wear Joker facepaint (though it was a ***** to wash off).

Oh, and I agree with meta, the "what happened to America" part was just absurd. Seriously, I go into borderline hysterics (the laughing kind) when that's said in political campaigns, how the hell is high school students laughing at a rather overblown program something screwed-up?

 

[Layz92]

I doubt people get shocked into drinking less and not driving while doing it. People who drink and drive are going to drink and drive, people who don't won't. Those courses never change anything as far as I can see. The smart survive, the stupid increase their chance of an early death. So I would probably be talking too, probably about how they should have put a clown in the driver seat of the mock crash for amusement's sake. What happened to America? Really? Nothing happened to America and nothing has happened to the rest of the world. It's still the same old world just the methods change. Instead of urchins picking pockets and slitting throats for cash now desperate people cheat people and rob liquor stores. So nothing happened to America in my opinion. Nothing has happened anywhere, it has nothing to do with generations just let it drop.

 

[Loop Stricken]

Of course some people did watch it, those who were fortunate enough to be able to. But those others, the majority, blatantly disregarded the seriousness and severity of the situation. Why the heck is this? What happened to America?

Regardless of nationality, people don't like being preached to. IN fact, I believe a recent study showed that people naturally rebel against such authoritative measures and as such are MORE likely to do what they're being told not to.
Not that I remember where I saw this.

 

[OtherSideofSky]

I think it's pretty much always been like this, pretty much everywhere. If people ever really took these things seriously, then there would probably be fewer car crashes.

On the whole, that program sounds kind of awful. It seem to me like it's just another cheap scare tactic which is far too uncreative to really surprise anyone and lacks any kind of tact or refinement. I remember when I would have to deal with things like that in school, I always felt my intelligence was being insulted, like no one trusted me to make any kind of rational judgment and just wanted to scare me into doing what they said. The truth, of course, is that the people who listen don't need to hear it and the people who ignore facts presented normally ignore stunts like this too.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

Damn. Must be something new since the past four years I've been out of highschool. I never had to go through any simulation like that.

I have been in a REAL car crash though, at no fault of mine or the the driver. Not fun.

 

[Deef]

I'm not going to lie, I wouldn't give a shit. Everything like that just feels so distant and unreal.
Maybe if someone I knew did die in a car accident I would care, but at this point I don't really give a shit about that kind of thing.

 

[Mackie Stingray]

I remember one of these. Must've been (runs the math real quick) probably at least 2000, maybe earlier. Very dramatized.
Here I was thinking I was the only one who thought it was lame.

 

[Distazo]

They are young, they feel invincible, well all did. I lost a friend a crash influenced by alcohol this last January and I don't laugh at these anymore. Honestly, be thankful that your school can laugh it off, I wish they wouldn't, but its better than all the tears that happened at mine.

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

See, whenever people presented me with reasonable evidence that certain activities were good ways to get killed, seriously injured, suffer severe health complications, etc, it certainly didn't make me want to do those things even more now. Because that's really freaking stupid.

I'm personally ashamed of my generation whenever I see just how many of them smoke, even though they've been told throughout their entire lives that's it's terrible for their health.

Hardly a day goes by where I don't want to smack just about everyone I encounter upside the head in a vain attempt to knock some sense into them. I'd never actually do that though, because I have the ability to apply pattern recognition to my actions to provide favorable outcomes.

 

[TailsRodrigez]

See, whenever people presented me with reasonable evidence that certain activities were good ways to get killed, seriously injured, suffer severe health complications, etc, it certainly didn't make me want to do those things even more now. Because that's really freaking stupid.

I'm personally ashamed of my generation whenever I see just how many of them smoke, even though they've been told throughout their entire lives that's it's terrible for their health.

Hardly a day goes by where I don't want to smack just about everyone I encounter upside the head in a vain attempt to knock some sense into them. I'd never actually do that though, because I have the ability to apply pattern recognition to my actions to provide favorable outcomes.

Its not that they were giving the info, it was the way they showed it, b/c it wasn't an exercise, more a "we are going to smack you across the face with our message until it annoys you to the point you want to filter out the message so you forget this experience."

the same can be said for a lot of smoking ads

if everyone went through life not taking risks, nothing would have ever evolved to something greater(and sometimes worse), nothing.

 

[Good morning blues]

What happened to America? I guess they started to resent really heavy-handed emotional manipulation.

Just because you don't like the last season of M*A*S*H doesn't mean you don't think war is bad.

 

[Deadarm]

In reguards to drunk driving unless the prohibition comes back its just another statistic in the stupid people doing stupid things list. Also, while I do understand the reasib why this event takes place, I do not believe its done properly. If it lasts for a month and the "living dead" as you put it were removed from their classes and disallowed to see or talk to anyone they know, it might actually have an impact. Especially if there is a "funeral" arranged for all of them.

 

[atalanta]

My school is participating in a program called ?Shattered Dreams? in the next two school days. This program centers on the dangers and terrors of car crashes, and how alcohol can heighten the chances of such events. It involves a mock crash and a series of announcements on the PA system every 15 minutes, saying that another member of the student body has ?died? and is now another member of the ?living dead?.

Drunk driving is bad. Doing stupid shit while drunk or high is bad and likely to get you or the people around you hurt. Drunk driving is a huge problem.

That being said -- not gonna lie, if my school had called my name and said I had "died" in an accident and had become one of the living dead I'd be spending the next couple of periods shuffling around, moaning and trying to bite people who walked by. But what can I say, I'm violently allergic to this kind of overwrought melodrama. (Also, man, that glurge-y poem about the girl who drives drunk and accidentally kills her parents? Aw, jeez, that's not a warning against drinking and driving, that's a warning as to why political poetry should be left to people with talent.)

Stuff like this is over-the-top enough to be ridiculous. Besides, what should they be doing, having a moment of silence for each undead student? Solemnly vowing that "lips that touch liquor shall not touch mine"?

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

if everyone went through life not taking risks, nothing would have ever evolved to something greater(and sometimes worse), nothing.

I'm not suggesting that the theatrics are necessarily an effective method for enforcing the point they want to get across, merely pointing out that ignoring the incredibly relevant and ACCURATE information they are ham-handedly trying to get across, in a pointless show of teenage defiance, is what people who are morons do.

There is a difference between risk taking and stupidity - driving drunk is absolutely stupid, and nothing good will ever come of it. The saying "You never know until you try!" holds no weight whatsoever when lots and lots and lots of people already have - we know drunk-driving kills people, we know smoking is terrible for your lungs and causes cancer, etc. There are no maybes there to latch on to.

Ergo, if you do any of those things, after being repeatedly told throughout your formative years not to, then logic dictates that must be because you are pretty darn stupid. With drunk-driving though, there's the distinct possibility that you'll harm not only yourself, but your friends, relatives, strangers, basically anyone unlucky enough to be nearby when your drunk ass plows your rolling coffin into something or someone at terminal speeds.

Somehow I fail to see how that is something to be flippant about.

 

[TailsRodrigez]

if everyone went through life not taking risks, nothing would have ever evolved to something greater(and sometimes worse), nothing.

I'm not suggesting that the theatrics are necessarily an effective method for enforcing the point they want to get across, merely pointing out that ignoring the incredibly relevant and ACCURATE information they are ham-handedly trying to get across, in a pointless show of teenage defiance, is what people who are morons do.

There is a difference between risk taking and stupidity - driving drunk is absolutely stupid, and nothing good will ever come of it. The saying "You never know until you try!" holds no weight whatsoever when lots and lots and lots of people already have - we know drunk-driving kills people, we know smoking is terrible for your lungs and causes cancer, etc. There are no maybes there to latch on to.

Ergo, if you do any of those things, after being repeatedly told throughout your formative years not to, then logic dictates that must be because you are pretty darn stupid. With drunk-driving though, there's the distinct possibility that you'll harm not only yourself, but your friends, relatives, strangers, basically anyone unlucky enough to be nearby when your drunk ass plows your rolling coffin into something or someone at terminal speeds.

Somehow I fail to see how that is something to be flippant about.

that it why i put the (and sometimes worse) part in my post, b/c there are things like driving drunk which are incredibly stupid. However, i will argue that many of our world's greatest achievements came out of defiance which most at the time called stupid.
plus, if someone wants to smoke, it is ok for them to, because everything can kill you,
here is an example, think of something in your house, like, a piece of meat in your fridge, there are people who would call you stupid for just having that, but you would say that is not true, but it is still all a matter of perspective.