According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, an accident is defined as this:
1. a: an unforeseen and unplanned event or circumstance b: lack of intention or necessity c: chance <met by accident rather than by design>
2. a : an unfortunate event resulting especially from carelessness or ignorance b: an unexpected and medically important bodily event especially when injurious <a cerebrovascular accident> c : an unexpected happening causing loss or injury which is not due to any fault or misconduct on the part of the person injured but for which legal relief may be sought d: used euphemistically to refer to an involuntary act or instance of urination or defecation
3. a nonessential property or quality of an entity or circumstance <the accident of nationality> Merriam-webster.com/dictionary/accident
And according to Wikipedia, accidents are defined as this:
An accident is a specific, unexpected, unusual and unintended external action which occurs in a particular time and place, with no apparent and deliberate cause but with marked effects. It implies a generally negative outcome which may have been avoided or prevented had circumstances leading up to the accident been recognized, and acted upon, prior to its occurrence. En.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accident
No matter how you define the word accident, it is clearly an intentional mistake to begin with in my eyes or reasoning.
My reasoning leads me to believe that all accidents can be prevented to begin with as long as the individual has the ability to think about the repercussions or ripple effects of such decisions. I’d like to give two examples here and hopefully, members can agree with my analogy or at the least, help me understand where am wrong.
My first example is this: You have a heat-sealed bag of potato chips. Usually, one only has to rip the top portion off and eat said chips. This is not the case is it? This bag is the one that has been sealed more significantly then the others that we have encountered, right? Okay, so now were using physical brute force to open the bag and what usually happens here? The bag bursts open and chips are flying all over the place and we curse ourselves for being stupid, right? Some might call this as an accident, right? I don’t see this as being an accident; I see this as an intentional mistake.
Why do I see this as such? Well, clearly if the individual had taken the time to search for a pair of scissors to cut the top, he wouldn’t have chips all over the place to begin with. Another thing to understand here is that the body and mind are not in sync with each other, if they were, this wouldn’t have happened to begin with.
If you want to take this further, then let’s say that the mind should be talking to the body, saying, Easy now, as soon as you see an opening, reduce your physical strength and apply pulling force gradually until the opening is wide enough to reach in and enjoy those chips.
My next example here is an incident that happened on a firing range a few years ago, Masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/10/westfield_police_release_name.html
Initially, this was deemed as an accident! I hereby refuse to believe that is was and according to the investigation, it was a sign of stupidity!
I say accidents are intentional mistakes created by ourselves and these two examples are proof of that. I am sure as you read this, you may agree with me and I’m sure there are others who will disagree, but the facts remain.
Am I wrong in my thinking here? Am I the only one that now understands that there are no accidents?
Thoughts and opinions are welcome greatly, please contribute, thanks.
