Three Days
One of the most well-known books of the Old Testament tells the story of Jonah. God dispatches Jonah to the city of Nineveh to warn them of the consequences of wickedness that is going on there. Instead, Jonah flees, catching a ride on a fishing vessel to a different city. God immediately begins punishing the ship with extreme weather which threatens to sink it. Jonah admits to the sailors that he is the cause of God's wrath and convinces them to jettison him into the sea and save themselves. The storms subside and Jonah sinks below the depths. Jonah is then swallowed by a "great fish", but somehow survives and dwells in the creature's belly for three days. Through prayer and repentance, Jonah is able to survive his predicament and return to shore. He goes on to Nineveh as God has commanded and fulfills his task.
This story has naturally been a popular one throughout the history of sea travel. Merchant and naval vessels are places where superstition would traditionally hold a lot of value. The idea of a cursed person bringing bad luck to his shipmates is a powerful one, especially if left unchecked.
Surprise
Perhaps the best example of exactly this phenomenon is shown in Peter Weir's brilliant film, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. Set during the Napoleonic era, The film follows the journey and crew of the English warship H.M.S Surprise, under the command of Captain Jack Aubrey.
Off the coast of Brazil, Aubrey's orders are to be on the lookout for French vessels that can be sunk or captured as they venture south, making their way toward the Pacific. The ship is caught off-guard by a French frigate called the Acheron, and a back and forth between the two ships develops as the two captains attempt to outsmart and outmaneuver each other.
Under Aubrey's command, a junior officer named Mr. Hollom is struggling to assume his place in the ship's hierarchy. He has the requisite knowledge to lead and run the day-to-day operations of the ship but lacks any confidence in himself. Hollom freezes at important moments, second guesses himself, and fails to assert himself in the face of unruly subordinates. He quickly loses the confidence of the men, along with their respect.
While chasing after the Acheron, the ship encounters a string of bad luck. High temperatures and a lack of wind leave the ship stranded in place, unable to continue their pursuit. The heat and tedium begin to wear on the crew, and they start to look for a cause of their misfortune. Mr. Hollom makes for an easy target.
"...Hollom was the first to spot the Acheron..."
"...It seems to only reappear when Hollom is on watch..."
"...He's the one bringing this suffering to us..."
The younger crew members are informed by an old veteran that they have a "Jonah" in their midst. One whose presence brings a curse upon the ship.
The crew's treatment of Mr. Hollom changes dramatically. Openly intimidating postures are taken. Whispering and chatter are overheard. Unruly behavior toward him is encouraged.
Hollom is well aware of the crew's beliefs about him. He also has all too much awareness of his own shortcomings but feels unable to overcome them. In his despair, Hollom sees only one way to be of service to the others. He takes hold of a cannonball, leaps over the side of the ship, and consigns himself to the depths. In his mind, no doubt relieving the crew of the curse his presence has brought on them.
Following the funeral service held the next day, the wind picks up and the ship is able to break free of its stagnation. Captain Aubrey makes no comment on the timing of this fortunate turn.
Master and Commander highlights the all too human tendency to identify a scapegoat when we're visited by misfortune. In the real world, especially in the age of digital communications and mass media, this tendency becomes exponentially more damaging.
Richard Jewell
In 1996, the Summer Olympics were held in Atlanta, Georgia. The games went off without controversy or trouble until a few days before the closing ceremonies, when a bomb was detonated at Centennial Olympic Park. One woman was killed, and several were injured by the explosion. While tragic, the casualty numbers would have been much higher if not for the quick thinking of a security guard who spotted the bomb and immediately began evacuating the area. The name of that security guard was Richard Jewell.
Richard Jewell had a history of attempts to work in law enforcement. He had tried to work for various sheriff’s departments and as a campus policeman but was kept from becoming an officer due to incidents in which he had acted overly enthusiastic in apprehending suspects. Jewell's law enforcement aspirations seemed like they would never materialize. When the Olympics came to his hometown, he jumped at the opportunity to serve as a security guard.
The FBI quickly began an investigation into the bombing and started to develop a list of suspects. At the time, the practice of criminal profiling was given a lot of credence by law enforcement at all levels. The fact that Jewell was single, lived with his mother, had an interest in firearms and a history of failure involving the field of law enforcement put Richard at the top of the FBI's list.
It just seemed to fit. The guy really wants to be a cop. He wants to feel heroic and to be respected and admired by his community. He is denied that opportunity. He collects guns, has few friends, and lives with his mother. Richard fit the profile of an unstable loner who might lash out.
The FBI theorized that Richard may have been bitter over being denied a chance to be heroic, and so perhaps he had decided to create a crisis that he could then take credit for averting. The problem was that aside from the profile match, there was no evidence to back up any of those suspicions.
That total lack of evidence didn't stop the FBI from leaking their top suspect to a reporter at the Atlanta Journal Constitution, though. What followed was an absolute tragedy. Overnight, Richard Jewell went from being regarded as a hero that had saved the lives of 100 people, to a national pariah and terrorism suspect. The national media picked up the story and ran with it, running libelous articles:
The Atlanta Journal Constitution compared him to an infamous serial killer.
NBC News reported that there was probably enough to arrest and prosecute Jewell, but that it was best to get enough to be sure of a conviction
The New York Post called Richard an "Aberrant Person" and implied he was probably guilty.
Media vultures kept a live video feed of his mother’s apartment going around the clock.
Jay Leno mocked him on the Tonight Show.
Millions of people were convinced that Richard Jewell was an evil monster. They were wrong.
After months of harassment and defamation, the FBI dropped their investigation of Jewell due to lack of evidence. His life was ruined, and his reputation permanently tarnished. A few years later, an anti-abortion activist named Eric Rudolph was arrested and confirmed to be the actual bomber. Apologies were not issued to Jewell.
Richard Jewell was a hero that saved the lives of 100 people and had his own life ruined for it. A combination of shamelessness and immorality in the media industry and at the FBI set the public upon this man. He was attacked and demonized relentlessly because it made for a good story and sold papers. The FBI knew their case was baseless but allowed it to continue. The agency has never apologized.
Richard Jewell died in 2007. He was never given his due for his act of heroism.
Lindy Chamberlain
In August of 1980, Lindy and Michael Chamberlain took their infant daughter Azaria with them on a weekend camping trip in Australia's Northern Territory. The baby went missing and Lindy reported having seen a wild dog near their tent. She believed that the dingo she spotted had taken her baby. Tragically, that was the last anyone would ever see of Azaria Chamberlain. The child's body was never found.
Immediate and intense scrutiny fell on the couple from both police and the media. Doubt was cast on Lindy's story, and she was portrayed as either uncaring or psychotic. In either case, she was presented as a murderer.
The police fed information to the press and left the Chamberlains unaware and unprepared to properly address the matter.
The media focused on and misrepresented the Chamberlain's membership at a Seventh Day Adventist church, disingenuously implying that they might be a part of some kind of cultish behavior involving child sacrifice.
The media reported a statement by an anonymous acquaintance that the child's name, Azaria, somehow translated to Sacrifice in the Wilderness.
Lindy Chamberlain was sincerely accused of being a witch.
Forensic investigators found what they claimed was the infant's blood in the family's car. Given the pattern of the blood, the prosecution argued that the child's throat had been slashed with a knife in the car and the body later buried in the desert. In 1982, this evidence was used to convict Lindy Chamberlain of murder and sentence her to life in prison. Michael was charged as an accessory and given a lighter sentence.
Five years later, a matinee jacket that had belonged to Azaria Chamberlain was discovered in a dingo layer near the site of the disappearance. The prosecution had maintained throughout the trial that this jacket did not exist.
Forensic evidence was revisited, and it was determined that the blood found in the Chamberlain car was actually a spilled drink, and that the test they had run had actually detected a sound-deadening compound in the upholstery which came with the car. The evidence, and the crime that was imagined surrounding it, had been completely false. Lindy Chamberlain was exonerated and released.
Of course, she still didn't have her daughter. She had to live with the horror of having her infant child carried away by wild dogs. On top of that unimaginable pain, the whole world had been convinced that she was lying about this and had murdered the child herself.
There were movies made about the event. "Dingo Lady" jokes were a thing. It became a punchline.
But it was all true.
This couple endured the most difficult loss a human being can suffer. Before they could even grieve, they were made the subject of a media circus and a literal witch hunt.
Imagine something so unbelievably horrible happening to your child. Then imagine being blamed for it. Having the media fuel the wild rumors and defamation. Having the police produce false evidence to place the tragedy on your hands. How does a person remain sane?
We Did It!
On April 15, 2013. A bomb exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Hundreds were injured and three people were killed. The tragedy sparked an immediate manhunt for those responsible. Law enforcement canvassed the Boston area for suspects and persons of interest.
Reddit users decided to get in on the action, reviewing footage of the bombing in hopes of identifying a suspect or new evidence. Within hours a photo of one of the bombers was released by the authorities. Shortly after, a Reddit "investigator" came across a Facebook page that had been set up for a missing university student named Sunil Tripathi. The user put Tripathi's photo side by side with Tsarnaev's and posted it. This led to a swarm of media and internet attention to the Facebook page and the family of the missing young man.
Sunil Tripathi's name and image were associated with this awful crime. He was presented to millions as the perpetrator. The Tripathi family took the page down in distress. This only fueled further suspicion, death threats, and accusations toward them.
Having your son go missing is tragic enough. Having your missing son then be falsely accused of acts of terrorism takes it to another level.
Unfortunately, it got worse.
Sunil Tripathi could not have had anything to do with the bombing. This was because he had in fact committed suicide before the marathon even took place. Sunil's body was recovered from the Providence River a few weeks after the bombing.
Afterwards, news outlets along with many Reddit and Twitter users did apologize to the Tripathi family. I can't imagine that it helped much.
It's difficult to imagine the pain of learning that your child has committed suicide. But to then have that child accused of the horrific death and maiming of innocents? It's a weight no one should be made to bear.
Our Failure
This is the danger of our desire to point the finger. Our inability to remain calm and reserve judgement will almost always lead to a compounding of injustice and tragedy. It makes victims out of the innocent. It casts heroes as villains. It piles suffering onto those already crushed by it.
This behavior also tarnishes all of us for having taken part in it, even passively. When something terrible happens, we naturally look to identify the source.
Who is responsible? Why did this happen?
We want an answer. We want a face we can assign guilt to. There is a desire to wrap a big bow around the whole thing, as if by doing so we might be able to exert some control over the chaos that comes with existence. But we have to temper that instinct. We degrade our humanity when we accept outrageous claims without scrutiny.
In Master and Commander, Captain Aubrey delivers a eulogy for Mr. Hollom. He addresses the crew’s collective failure to temper their worst impulses:
The simple truth is, not all of us become
the men we once hoped we might be.
But we are all God's creatures.
If there are those among us
who thought ill of Mr Hollom,
or spoke ill of him,
or failed him in respect of fellowship...
then we ask for your forgiveness, Lord.
And we ask for his.
A very thoughtful piece. I think we have all been a Hollom and doubted ourselves, just as we have been crew members unfairly talking down the contributions of others. We are all sinners really.
Self-doubt is crippling and can take considerable work to overcome. I have always had affinity with the Holloms myself.
Most folks go through life without ever being jeered at by a bloodthirsty mob. They don't know how it feels.
It ain't fun.