Whatever else immediacy brings, it brings us closer to a primal state where reaction is necessary and reflection a luxury.
On 9 April 2017 Dr David Dao was a passenger on a United flight out of Chicago who is said to have reacted, when asked to deplane an overbooked flight, by saying “I can’t get off the plane. I have to get home. I’m a doctor. I have to get to the hospital in the morning.”
United and airport security reacted. The immediate consequence for Dr Dao was a concussion, a broken nose, and the loss of two teeth.
United’s CEO, named “Communicator of the Year for 2017” by PRWeek in March, reacted by saying “I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers.” On one level it was a prudent reflection, as the CEO was adopting the wording used in United’s contract. But, as the online reaction showed, reflection is not the best way to respect reaction.
The industry reacted. By August 2017, bumped-passenger rates were at their lowest since 1995, though the market, contrary to immediate media speculation, did not thrash United.
As for the media, tabloid media reaction was swift and vicious. It uncovered a decades-old crime involving Dr Dao exchanging painkillers to a male patient for sex. Sibling broadsheet media reacted by questioning the relevance of the crime and the gender of the patient to the assault. There was also, briefly, a mild reaction under the guise of self-reflection, when it looked like that person may have been a different Dr Dao.
As for social media, the videos of Dr Dao’s travails went viral. And when Dr Dao’s daughter described her father as Vietnamese Chinese, a centuries-old complexity was exposed for Vietnamese, Chinese and US reaction. Hits were in the hundreds of millions, even a brief petition “#ChineseLivesMatter”.