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I don't know what you think about Iraq, I have my own veiws, which I will share at some time.
I have been troubled recently by the media. Aren't we all from time to time? I thought the shooting that happened at Virginia Tech was horrific and I really felt for the place and the people.
It's just that 30 people were shot in a university and 100's more than that died the same week in Iraq.
Have we become immune to Iraq?
:And it's true we are immune, fact is fiction TV reality and today the millions cry we eat and drink while tomorrow they die:
I remember seeing the first Live Aid in 1985 I was 15 it was very moving, but we have grown up with these images of suffering and I do believe I have become increasingly immune to the suffering of my generation around the world.
A now the media decides what should be top of the agenda, whose death is worse, the young people at Virginia Tech or the people in Iraq? Of course we know they are both as bad as each other.
I thought what happened on September 11th was horrific and the exstensive media coverage brought it home to reach, it's the first time I have cried whilst watching the news, this live drama unfolded before our eyes, we watched as the towers crumbled and knew we were watching the death of many. I do not want to detract from the horror of 9/11 but there were other people dying on that day:
24,000 people, died on 11 September 2001(and every day) of hunger
6,020 children, died on 11 September 2001(and every day) from diarrhoea
2,700 children, died on 11 September 2001 (and every day) from measles
"There were two 'Reigns of Terror' ... the one inflicted death upon a thousand persons, the other upon a hundred million..."
Mark Twain, writing about the French Revolution,in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
There is "sudden terror" which always grabs our attention and the medias attention, but there is a different terror which is "lasting terror" this is the one I believe we have become immune to.
8 comments:
I'm enjoying your blog these days Brian. You've hit on a couple of my hobby horses in the past few days.
Re: this post...
I heard a international news reporter say once that, when deciding what features on the news-
1 US life = 5 european lives = 100 asian lives = 1000 african lives.
I frequently feel disgusted with the media and the stories they give priority to. It struck me a couple of weeks ago when several people had died tragically in the North Sea, and yet every news channel dedicated their headline and at least half their programme to the break up between Prince William and his girlfriend - the more 'sexy' story! The world is truly upside down in its values.
And J-Mac I think what that reporter said is completely true.
Nina
“Is it the extremist, or the media, that blow things up” - Marleen Loesje (Dutch Fictional character "Active and International girl")
Thanks Brian for bringing my attention to how many people actually die of little things that I take for granted.
When I'm hungry, I eat. If I have dihorreah, I take immodem, and I don't have to worry about measles 'cause I've been vacinated against it.
These deaths are all obviously preventative and I think it's sad that the media don't bring it to the publics attention what's really going on in the world.
I think J-Mac is right too.
And I think we are so detached from the lives of people outside the western culture, and we live in a very unequal and unbalanced world, where some people's lives are thought of as more important than others. :/
I find it so difficult to stay in touch with the gross realities of our world--unless I'm there in the midst, seeing it for myself. I had tremendous compassion for people when I traveled to India on a mission trip. But now, sadly, it's long forgotten.
The 9/11 attacks were so confounding to me, maybe being that it was so close to home and nothing quite like that had ever happened on US soil. The media coverage played those scenes over and over and over--the images are burned in my mind. But at this point, I do not trust the media past my nose. It's all about approval ratings, and hyping a story and it sickens me... esp. how the public is so swayed and manipulated by these reports.
Honestly, only 5 years later, I feel completely desensitized--even about the Geogia Tech tragedy! In regards to the sick and dying in other parts of the world or the war in Iraq or the acts of violence in other nations or even natural disasters that occur fairly regularly... what will it take to wake me up? What will I do once I'm awake again?
It's a thought proking post.
i believe the media is so politicised that we will only ever see the events or situations that big brother wants us to see. we need to be more aware of the world and what is going on and the only way to do this is by asking the questions they don't want you to ask.
as you say, it's not a matter of whose death is worse. sudden terror shocks us. on-going terror should shock us but doesn't because we put on our coping mechanisms of numbness. we don't like it, but we can somehow comprehend death in a war zone or death in a disaster zone.
but violent, aggressive, angry slayings on a quiet campus where students are just beginning their day--this we can't get our heads round. i'm NOT saying we should be able to get our heads around the other deaths, just pointing out why Virginia Tech captivates our attention.
maybe as a mum with a son away at university i am particularly horrified by it. i am glad he is there and not in a war zone. i assume he is safe. on the other hand, i am painfully aware of how close both our older sons are to war if the U.S. should begin drafting young men into service again.
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