Designer Kidnapping - You heard it here first...
Did you hear Matt Wells' Today programme report on designer kidnapping in the global consumer capital this morning?
For $2,000 Brock Enright and his crack team will stalk and violently abduct you - to help you conquer your fears. We heard a kidnapping in progress on a Manhattan Street. Apparently, it evolved from making movies - I guess we shouldn't even ask what kind - and then wanting real subjects and finding that demand started increasing. Hey presto, you've got a business.
A respected New York pyschotherapist, whose name I didn't catch, said "survival is cut to the wire, and people feel good having got off the rollercoaster." While there's nothing illegal about it - a timescale is agreed upfront - the New York Police Department say it's no laughing matter, not least because people might become desensitized to abductions. Interestingly, no-one's tried to stop them; I guess because of that urban/big city thing where people just walk by and say "thank God it's not me" rather than help, but Brock says people see the video cameras, and think it's a movie. So you get a video as a keepsake? Cool; get your mates round for beers Friday and watch it together.
In this bizarre new world of kidnap-on-demand, Matt Wells asks a wise question: what is a satisifed customer? We heard James, who clearly has more money than sense, as he'd had three kidnappings, say that what he enjoys is "the violence, the pain, being blindfolded, trying to resist, and "paying" for his actions if he tries to escape."
Is it it just me, or is that someone talking about what they like about, er, bondage? domination? Brock was asked whether he's worried about dealing with "the acceptable limits of human behaviour" and he replied, in a voice that reflected serious sleeplessness on the subject, "I know."
Here's what I think: apart from the glaringly obvious sexual undertones - and don't even get me started on how fetish stuff is becoming increasingly mainstream - think about the logistics. I don't know if people are kidnapped for a couple of hours or a day, and I - strangely - can't find these guys online and it's 4am in New York so Matt Wells is not at his desk, but if you're paying $2,000 you probably have a job. Do you book the time off in advance? Then it's not quite the thrill-seeking surprise, is it? But then if all your senior executives were abducted over a few month period, you'd start to wonder, wouldn't you? Do people "pretend" they were really kidnapped? Or is it a secret - quasi-sexual - thing people do?
This twisted form of masochism says something really disturbing about the world we live in: I just don't know what it is. But I'm sure if I get kidnapped this afternoon - or perhaps I'd just make do with a kneecapping - it'll help me crystalise my thinking.
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