We love the Chilean miners. And really, who doesn’t? From the runner to the doctor to the adulterer—yes, him too—they captured our attention and showed us how much a group of men, working together, can actually survive. Because of that, we put them at number eight on our list of the Top 10 Good Men of 2010. We said:
We cared about the Chilean miners because they represented the best of humanity—cooperation for the common good, hopefulness in the face of the most desperate circumstances. Even under such inhumane conditions, their duty, selflessness, and composure reminded us that when life is at its worst, we can still be at our best.
Yes, that’s still all true, but it turns out it wasn’t so easy.
According to a segment from this past Sunday’s 60 Minutes, all but one of the 33 miners have experienced serious psychological problems since being rescued. At one point before the rescue, their food rations were down to just one can of tuna between the entire group. The group held hands, praying that the can would somehow multiply. At this point, Victor Zamora contemplated suicide :
I said to a friend, ‘Well, if we are going to continue suffering, it would be better for us to all go to the refuge, start an engine and with the carbon monoxide, just let ourselves go.’ It was to not continue suffering. We were going to die anyway.
Washington Post and Guardian columnist Jonathan Franklin wrote 33 Men, the so-called inside story of the Chilean miners. He made an appearance on 60 Minutes and mentioned that some miners had joked to another miner that if he died in his sleep, he’d be “breakfast, lunch, and dinner.” Except they weren’t joking. Mario Supelveda, the de facto leader of the group, said that in five or 10 more days, they would’ve resorted to cannibalism:
Food or no food, I was going to get out of there … I had to think about which miner was going to collapse first and then I started thinking about how I was going to eat him … I wasn’t embarrassed, I wasn’t scared.
In Franklin’s book, which was released yesterday, he also mentions that the miners had requested they be sent down sex dolls, but doctors declined the request after they could only find 10 dolls. They feared jealousy might creep in if there wasn’t a doll for each miner. Yes, jealousy over a blowup doll.
Franklin also says that the miners were sent marijuana and pornography in letters from family members.
This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. With 33 guys trapped underground—little food, dwindling hope for salvation, and no entertainment—things were bound to get weird. As a whole, they came together to do something that, really, was superhuman. But individually, each miner was just a man, trying to come to terms with what could’ve been the end of his life. Sex dolls, drugs, suicide, and cannibalism all take on a different meaning through such a desperate lens.
But how do you guys feel? After reading some of these details, do you still look at the miners in the same way? Do they still deserve a place on our list? Or has your opinion changed? Let us know.
—Photo Zoey_Temple-Purcell/Photobucket
I feel you should leave them the fuck alone. They’ve been through enough and the darkness they encountered and the ‘vices’ they engaged in to get through it is not there for our vicarious, pampered entertainment.
What is most impressive is that thought of cannibalism filled their minds–and probably would have for you too in that situation–but they didn’t resort to violence. There have been multiple documented incidents of desperation in which someone ends up getting killed so they others can eat their body. What’s more, whatever little food they did have, the miners always split it evenly. When “evenly” meant a teaspoon of tuna every 48 hours, they still stuck to equal portions. I don’t know if individually they are good men. They are a mix of 33 different people, and with that you get… Read more »
They stay where the are on the list, if not higher. We are extolling their virtue for having survived in difficult circumstances, not for having been moral superiors to the average man.
I am not surprised by the miners contemplating cannibalism. Anyone who wishes to live in a pretty fantasy might be confronted by this, but most men put in this position would consider eating the fallen (and watching closely those at the edge of falling). Cannibalism has been documented in many other similar desperate situations. However I don’t even know why porn or marijuana is even mentioned as this is something many men partake of as a matter of course in every day life. To be honest, this piece would get far more response in a women’s magazine where drama and… Read more »