Curious or perverse?

On my way home last night I noticed that the road outside the Camden tube station was closed off by the Police; this is not uncommon due to the generally dodgy nature of the area!

A quick glance showed that someone had come off their motorcycle, and they were clearly not in a good way. Then I found myself slowing, looking harder, and as glance turned into glare I caught myself. What the hell was I doing?

For a start, since my accident, I'm not big on blood and gore and accident scenes in general. Further, there was nothing particularly interesting to see - it's not as if a big screen was about to be wheeled out to show a replay. So why was I slowing down and perving?

That I can explain away as natural curiosity - I took a 'reasonable' amount of time to suss out what had happened, processed it and moved on. What I can't explain so easily is what sort of perverse pleasure the crowd of 100 or so people were looking to derive as they jostled for position roadside.

What could you possibly take out of that experience? Would they be discontented if the guy was OK and got up and walked away? It made me think of the Romans at the coliseum - but seemed worse somehow.

Firstly, I thought we were a touch more 'civilized' these days. Secondly, this was bloodsport, without the sport. It just seemed squalid.