A few days ago, I wrote about Malcolm Gladwell’s new book, Talking to Strangers, and the sad story about our default reaction in trying to make sense of the world and its dire consequences. Today I read a chapter on coupling and how strongly “coupled” (get it), our actions are to context or circumstances.
One of the most stark examples was suicide in England in the middle of the last century. Gladwell explains that at its peak, the number of annual suicides due to gas inhalation reached around 2400 in the early 1960s. During this time, most of England homes were served domestic gas using “town gas“. Unlike natural gas, the type of fuel Americans are most familiar with, town gas is made from coal. Town gas contains up to 10% of carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide is very toxic to humans, and any organism which requires oxygen to survive. Carbon monoxide is odorless, tasteless and colorless, basically invisible to humans. When we inhale it, carbon monoxide combines with hemoglobin. Our bodies use hemoglobin in our red blood cells to transport oxygen to the various parts of our body. The combination of both of these molecules produces carboxyhemoglobin (COHb). And this latter molecule is what makes carbon monoxide so toxic. When combined, the space that was used to transport oxygen to our body parts is usurped and we experience oxygen deprivation.
Because carbon monoxide is invisible to us, we continue to breath as normal and never realize its effects in our body. Natural gas, on the other hand, does not emit any carbon monoxide. This brings us back to our initial point, at a peak of about 2400 suicides by gas inhalation in the early 1960s, one would be forgiven to assume the number of people suffering from suicidal tendencies were just that suicidal. In other words, the 2400 souls just happened to commit suicide in this manner, but would have found another means of achieving their goal regardless. This is what my spouse responded when I posed the same question to her. When I asked her, do you think people that are suicidal will find a way? She responded, “yes, I think that people that truly want to die will find a way regardless of the challenge”. And I bet, most people will agree with her. Most people will say that if a person is so bent on ending their life they will find a way.
And yet, during this same time, when England was experiencing this unfortunate peak of suicides from gas inhalation, they were also moving their gas supply system from town gas to the non-toxic, natural gas, we’re more familiar with. Without carbon monoxide, suicide through gas inhalation was no longer an option. What happened to the suicide in England, it should have remained steady, right? Suicidal people will find a way, right? No. The rate went down with the migration to natural gas. This is coupling. The idea that we do xyz only under particular circumstances.
This begs the question, how much of our actions are due to our environment? How coupled are our successes or failures, to where we live or when we live? We have a tendency to believe we’re all powerful and can exert control over our circumstances and this is true. It is also true, that circumstances can exert much more control over our actions than we are ready to admit.
