[QUOTE=Dinsdale]
Clearly no one else is as worked up about this as I, but a glimpse of the local news last night really revulsed me. There seems something truly morbid about the amount of energy and resources that are being directed at these few deaths.
It really makes me wonder whether diverse segments of our society - the news media, grief/self help counselors, people looking for something to emote about - actually are glad when a tragedy like this occurs.
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I don’t think people are glad necessarily, but I do think that there is a degree of emotional satisfaction that people get when involved in something like this, and that we are encouraged as a culture to seek out that satisfaction more and more. It’s not that people are happy, but that it feels good to feel [bad/angry/despondent/grief/outrage/community]. So, when presented with an opportunity to feel those things in a group and public setting, people jump on it.
[QUOTE=Eonwe]
I don’t think people are glad necessarily …
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I guess what I was getting at (I agree “glad” was not a great word choice) - to large extent the local news impresses me as bloodsuckers, thriving largely on exploitation and titillation. And something like this gives them essentially limitless free material. So IMO they tend to milk it for all they can.
And when I watch some of these people giving interviews and otherwise participating in the coverage, my cynical nature questions the extent to which at least some of them are attention whores, with their behavior influenced by what the media demands.
Of course it is hard to simply criticize the media, because that’s what gets the ratings. So obviously people are tuning in. I think a part of a great many people “enjoy” vicarious thrills. Something like this happens and the schmuck sitting in a cubicle can think “Wow, what a narrow escape. I knew someone who went to college once!” I’m not sure why so many people seem to derive so much enjoyment out of following other people’s lives - whether celebrities or explosive events - but they do. It gives them something to form opinions about and discuss around the water cooler, instead of taking stock of their own lives and things over which they have some control.
The Ill. governor proposes razing and rebuilding the building where the shooting happened. Funny, I really didn’t realize the state education budget was so healthy that we could simply erase every site something unpleasant occurred. Actually, I’m glad to see this, because with 3 kids in or soon to attend state colleges I assume this means tuition will be going down, no?
Dins, it’s Blago. What do you expect? He’s a freakin’ idiot. Public Official A will hopefully be going down long before this idiocy can be put into action.
[QUOTE=Dinsdale]
The Ill. governor proposes razing and rebuilding the building where the shooting happened. Funny, I really didn’t realize the state education budget was so healthy that we could simply erase every site something unpleasant occurred. Actually, I’m glad to see this, because with 3 kids in or soon to attend state colleges I assume this means tuition will be going down, no?
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