If I blew up in an explosion

I was just walking back home the other day, passing by the several army soldiers who do random checks of people when I eventually came across a train of thought. So like many times before I encountered a person being checked.

So I thought ‘hmm… if this guy has a bomb, and it blows up, it’s going to really suck.’ As I got closer and closer a different angle occurred to me. ‘If I was carrying the bomb, then I would know for sure that this guy didn’t have it on him, and then I wouldn’t have to worry about such things’.

Awesome so far? Getting even closer now, it suddenly occurs to me that even if I had the bomb, it wouldn’t be of much comfort because at some point in the future I would be dying. So not much benefit there…

But then again it occurred to me that there would be a difference then. What is the difference? Well referring to the recent movie, Dark Knight, the Joker makes a statement along the lines that if he were to announce in advance that a bus load of soldiers was going to die in an explosion, and the next day it happened, no one would panic. “It’s all part of the plan” he says. ‘But when I say that one little old mayor will die, well then everyone loses their minds! ’.

How does this relate? Well quite simply if I was carrying the bomb, then I would know exactly at what instant it would go off, and I would brace myself for the impending explosion. It would be part of the plan. But if I was just strolling along the street and suddenly BOOM, well I might get scared shitless.

So what is it about knowing something is going to happen that takes the edge off it? The same event, but knowledge of it in advance somehow softens its impact. Maybe it’s because if we know, we feel like we’re in control. The unexpected and the unknown doesn’t seem very controllable does it?