Manifesting Mercy

Paula Xiberras

Eleanor Learmonth hasn’t visited Tasmania for many years but her Canadian husband is requesting a visit and she’s keen to oblige, and in fact, her book does have a Tasmanian connection as one of its stories is that of Alexander Pierce.

I spoke to Eleanor Learmonth, half of the writing team, with Jenny Tabakoff, of the book ‘No Mercy: True Stories of Disaster, Survival and Brutality’, that deals with a fascinating if not necessarily favourable subject, of how people cope when faced with extreme circumstances and alienated from their usual support systems. Think a Lord of the Flies scenario of a disharmonious group of frightened individuals cut off from civilised society and with a shaky rule of law.

Eleanor tells me the book was in part inspired by an incident that occurred to her when she went to Japan to learn Japanese as a mature age student. Eleanor found herself experiencing an earthquake. At the onset all remained calm but when her teacher left the room accompanied by a piercing scream almost at once the mood changed and all the students followed suit in their panic.

After safely evading the earthquake Eleanor went and had a steadying drink. It would be later when she did research for her book that she discovered the not so good significance of both group behaviour and alcohol in times of crisis. People are affected by group behaviour and panic is contagious. This is where a strong leader has a calming effect on their crew and can avert panic. Secondly, attempting to escape the fear of a situation by drinking alcohol can blur clear thinking and can damage the metabolism’s response to the situation.

The book looks at many unfortunate incidents that put people in dire circumstances but also attempts to analyse the chances of the rule of law surviving when everything around it crumbles, and how people can survive difficult situations if fragmentation can be prevented and calm heads maintained.

Eleanor believes the answer to group’s homogeneity, especially in crisis, is two things, compassion and communication. Once compassion is forgotten and self-preservation is the main priority then we lose that basic humanity. Good leadership and confidence in that leadership is the glue that sticks people in such situations together. That is why it is often a good decision to let the people who are forced together in extreme circumstances to have some say in electing their leader so they feel they have some sense of control. Sharing resources fairly and taking care of the vulnerable are also factors influencing a positive outcome. Of course always keeping the avenues of communication open is paramount.

The authors list a series of stages that human neurology goes through when faced with a threatening situation. These include freezing, fainting, fighting and fleeing. Freezing when faced with a difficult situation. The human brain retains a primitive aspect and isn’t programmed to react to some of the situations the modern world creates but is programmed for more primitive situations that still have relevance today, an example being ‘freezing’ which was a useful reaction if approached by a wild animal in that it may lead the animal to think that the person is no longer alive and so the animal will move on. Fainting would produce a similar result and of course fighting and fleeing are self-explanatory.

A topic touched on is a delicate one, of when supplies grow low and food must be sourced from unconventional means, firstly, from materials such as leather and fabric and then animals.

One point to note with eating animals is that in a starvation situation people gravitate to liver. It may be because it can be eaten raw. It is however very dangerous to consume too much liver because of the high iron content and in some cases, illustrated in the book, can cause the person to be severely ill or worse.

When animal food is exhausted, in desperate situations, the stranded turn to those that didn’t make it as a last resort. In one particular case cited the ailing members of a stranded group gave their blessing to be used for the benefit of others in something akin to a real life Eucharist.

In a much more sinister scenario sometimes as tension and starvation develop, relationships deteriorate and abuse and violence emerge, the abuse and even annihilation of fellow human beings can go further than what is required for survival and done just for a perverse thrill.

Eleanor says that some people are surprised, and not necessarily comfortable, with the fact that this book is written by two women, but Eleanor doesn’t know why this is so unexpected or even distasteful. She calls it ‘chick grit’ and explains, while men are interested in reading about the statistics of these case studies, it is women who are interested on how survivors can cooperate to solve problems and achieve a happy outcome.

‘No Mercy’ by Eleanor Learmonth and Jenny Tabakoff is out now.