Imagine two families living side-by-side on the ground floor of a multi-story apartment building. They do not live in Oregon, but in some quaint and more geographically settled area, where gas heat and gas stoves are the norm. It is a sunny Saturday… one of those days when the great outdoors calls out and demands to be explored, with gusto and enthusiasm.

Two couples set out just minutes apart, in two different SUVs. They speed away in opposite directions. One is heading to the mountains. The other is heading to the shore (with perhaps a stop at an outlet mall or a brewpub somewhere along the way). They want to get an early start. They have been working hard all week and are fearful of losing the day. But before much time has elapsed, one person in one car starts to wonder: did she leave the stove on?

This has never happened before, and Ellen is usually very careful about these things. Even OCD. But she had never lived with a gas stove before. Its novelty speaks to her of danger. She remembers turning the gas stove on, to heat up water for instant oatmeal.

But she has no memory of turning the stove off. Why would she?

After much inner debate and turmoil, she brings up her concern. They pull over in the parking lot of a nearby convenience store, so that they can discuss the matter further. After several minutes of intense discussion, it becomes clear that her anxiety is going to ruin the trip unless they head back home.

She convinces her partner to turn around, “just to check.”

Meanwhile, three and a half miles away, the other couple is bickering about the very same possibility. The driver, Craig, is worried because his girlfriend insisted on making them both French toast that very morning before setting out. He is feeling gastric distress from the rich food and secretly wondering if he might be lactose intolerant or allergic to eggs. But he cannot admit that possibility out loud! Instead, he thinks of a convenient way to deflect blame.

He accuses her of leaving the stove on.

She angrily denies the accusation.

He leans across the driver’s seat to confront her. Now he is almost positive he remembers the smell of gas. He tells her so.

“All right, we can go back. But please make it quick!”

“You got it, babe.”

They pull a U-ey though the center of town and barrel homeward, at top speed.

You guessed what’s coming next…

Both vehicles turn abruptly into the narrow parking lot of the apartment building. Both drivers are distracted, and driving a little too fast. They are only a few feet away from their own front doors. They swerve in opposite directions, and in the process collide.

One SUV actually flips, and hurtles through the window of their neighbor’s gas-flooded kitchen.

The result is a fiery conflagration. The entire building goes up in flames. The people in the two vehicles perish. Because of the immense niceness of the day and the complete disappearance of Saturday morning cartoons, no children or pets are harmed.

—

This is the best I can do.

—

It’s possible to draw lots of inferences from this story. Most notably, don’t speed and don’t necessarily leave the womenfolk to do all the cooking.

It’s also not an indictment of natural gas from a safety standpoint. Serious fires can be caused by something as simple as an electrical cord left too close to a burner. Deaths can be caused by generators¹ used indoors or garages. As a foodie, there is no substitute! I miss my JennAir from Charlotte, North Carolina — as well as the ancient and nameless stove that served me well for eight idyllic years in rural Massachusetts.

But yes, there is a lesson to be learned here. I’ll get to it shortly.

In this hypothetical thought experiment, the gas main would not have been damaged if somebody had not left their stove on, releasing a significant amount of combustible gas vapor into the air.

But which stove? Which kitchen?

Here is where we encounter several possibilities.

In other words, Ellen (the oatmeal eater) simply forgot whether she left the gas on in her apartment. She had a memory lapse. She was coming back to check on the situation. Had she and her partner not collided with the other vehicle, the situation would have been contained and everything would have been fine.

Craig (the guy who ate the French toast) convinced himself that he had smelled gas. This might have been an example of confabulation (in other words, manufacturing a false memory). This urgent but totally rational fear led him and his hapless girlfriend to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

But what if Craig’s memory was the true one? What if Ellen was imagining things?

Same outcome.

Change up the positions and the velocities of the two vehicles, or change which couple had rented which apartment, and it wouldn’t matter.

 Where am I going with all this?

We all know about fake news and fake memories.

We recognize that many people lie out of habit and even forget what the truth is. But that’s not all. We assume that others can be misled, then conveniently adopt the narratives that fit with our own experience and beliefs. That’s old news.

Objective reality? What’s that? Do you actually believe there was a moon landing?

We know the power of the crowd — the influence of suggestion, of propaganda, of mass hysteria.

What we forget is that memories and perceptions change of their own accord, independent of any direct causal event. When two or more sets of memories interact — particularly when these memories are different or opposing, and when a fear factor is present — the potential for conflict is high.

The scientific method yearns for an objective truth. A single, definitive answer. We want our heroes and villains. We want to know what actually happened.

Come on, storyteller…

Who is at fault? Who really left the gas on?

To the insurance company determining fault and cause, the answer matters. They are the money people. The bag holders. They need forensic evidence in order to proceed with processing the property owners’ claim. To everyone else, we just have a senseless tragedy. Who was at fault is not important. Both sides, or neither. Mistakes compounding mistakes.

The moralists just throw up their hands and walk away. Senseless violence. Hasty actions with terrible consequences. They surround us.

The optimist looks for a lesson from the story and remembers that this is a work of fiction and not an item from the local newspaper. (Although these days you never know…)

I included two symbols, placed very intentionally.

Here are the cheat codes:

 

The first symbol is the natural gas line. In this example, it represents the power of the state. Specifically, police and military power. But you could also expand this metaphor to include licensed possession of firearms — or medical and teaching licenses. Much like public utilities, these are systems that taxpayers fund and often take for granted. They lawfully grant individuals the authority to make life and death decisions. In a democracy — at least in theory — we as citizens set the rules.

The second symbol is the explosion that engulfs the building. And no, I didn’t place it there just for effect. Those flames represent violence — lives lost, and the grief of loved ones. But also risks to the first responders who arrive at the scene. As well as environmental damage and financial disaster (we will assume not all individuals in the building had renters’ insurance).

There are so many kinds of evil lurking in the world…

What I am trying to get at here is preventable evil.

This is the type of harm that occurs due to ignorance, stupidity, and sheer bad luck. It is inescapable. But with the right moral outlook, we can cut down on the number of incidents.

It really is still about how we treat our neighbors. What assumptions we make, and how quickly we move to act on them.

None of us are infallible. Neither the present, the future, or the past are totally within our control.

Liberating ourselves from fear doesn’t free us from the consequences of other people’s fear and stupidity.  In the short term, it can make us targets. Cultivating an attitude of patience and generosity, of awareness and forgiveness, might be a starting place. It might actually create network effects.

 

¹  Never use an electrical generator indoors. (Source: https://www.cpsc.gov/Newsroom/News-Releases/2007/Know-Carbon-Monoxide-Dangers-Before-the-Power-Goes-Out)