The Curious Case of Christine Chubbuck

Christine Chubbuck is not exactly a household name but has her name engraved in history as being the first news reporter who shot herself on the live TV in 1974.  On July 15^th, 1974, Christine was reading the morning news when she flipped the script page and with a slightest of hesitance began reading the following.

“In keeping with Channel 40’s policy of bringing you the latest in blood and guts and in living colour We bring you another first.. An attempted suicide”

She gazed into the camera with eyes that were direct and challenging. From under the anchor’s desk, her right hand came out along with a 0.38 caliber revolver. Before any of the crew or the audience could understand what was unfolding in the anchor’s room, she placed the gun on the lower back of her head and pulled the trigger. A sudden lull, a puff of smoke and her dark brown hair flew as though they were caught in a sudden gust of wind. Exactly 14 hours after this incident, she was declared dead in the nearby hospital. The obvious question what had led a 29 year successful anchor to commit suicide. The prime reason explained afterwards was the extreme dearth of close friends and romantic attachments. In fact, it bothered her that at 29, she was still a virgin. Despite her best attempts she couldn’t register with people and hence was excessively depressed leading to loss of desire to live. This was later confirmed by her relatives and psychiatrist who had been giving her sessions since weeks before her death.

While she is not the remote case of depression due to lack of adequate social bonding but the pivotal question that needs to be addressed is the utility or futility of social bonds. A cliche statement pops up into my head almost instantaneously whenever I start pondering on this subject. “Man is a social animal”. There is no denying of the fact that we seek company but is that quest so paramount to life that failure in this regard could lead to giving up the gift of life. The discussion becomes even more riveting when viewed in the backdrop of the newly found obsession with individuality. On one hand, individuality provides freedom from the bondages of family and thus allows for independent decision making resulting in precise choices driven by individual notion of happiness but on the other hand, individuality also enhances the likelihood of despair, anguish and hopelessness which eventually saps up the desire to live.

Ironically, the ushering information age with the stated intent of aiding communication has reduced the intensity of the same and hence superficial communication rules the roast. Nowhere is it better at display than the social media sites and the underlying dynamics. People share a kind of love and hate relationship with these since they need to project a particular image of themselves but in the same endeavor they tend to lose themselves. While, these users may have a plethora of friends, but the meaningful conversations never happen due to lack of emotional connect and profound understanding of real self. The pivotal question that keeps on banging in my head through is that where is this addiction taking us?

The very individuality and age of technological supremacy which we are unconsciously celebrating and inheriting bothers me, in fact it rocks me to the core. In the name of progress, development and gushing age of artificial intelligence, it seems that we are becoming more robotic with every new invention since there is an increasing need to emulate an idolized self rather than make peace with the imperfect self. With feelings become more shallow and meaningless, would it be wrong to assume that perhaps we are the future robots. I mean just think about it, deduct those imperfect feelings, irrational actions and gestures and what remains is artificial intelligence. Well, I today realise that indeed “Man is a social animal” and perhaps we should continue to remain so for it might threaten the very existence of our species. Once again I stand at the crossroads asking the same question which I have asked myself umpteen times before

“Oh Man!! You truly are most superior species to inhibit this planet. You can overcome all other so called inferior species but can you overcome the damage you so intrinsically bring about on yourself”

I truly wonder!!