Every day thousands of people in America have accidents that endanger their lives—and yet they don’t capture our imaginations in the same way as the thirty-three miners in Chile. Why is that?
Andrew Belonsky proposes and intriguing explanation:
[W]hy do we care so much about how many miners have been rescued in Chile , and their quest for freedom? Well, the answer’s in the question.
“Rescue” is a bit of a strange word. Unlike other lexemes, “rescue” doesn’t have a straight-forward history. There’s no true Latin root , because the word “rescue” comes from two other terms: “re,” which means “again,” and “excuss,” a since-discarded word that meant “to shake off,” or “get rid of.” So “to rescue” means to “shake off again,” an idea that plays on a particularly Western fascination.
Western man has been shaped by one dominating thought: freedom. The democratic experience has shaped generations of Americans, Mexicans and other peoples living under the one man, one vote system. We thirst for sovereignty, for autonomy, for unhindered movement.
Whether it be Chilean miners or helpless tots, stories of restriction awaken within the Western mind a collective longing. If someone’s being held against their will, by man or nature, then we respond with sympathy and compassion. If someone or something has taken an individual against their will, we respond with scorn and contempt.
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