Re: [microsound] Re: Attempt at Understanding of "Emotional Calousness"

[a l an b a m fo rd <alanb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Im un subbing until ww 3 is over...I just dont have time to read, or
even check for relevence to me...100+ posts a day

ab

Once upon a time Joseph Siemion muttered:

>
> There are many ways people respond to tragedy. Some feel it in their guts
> and cry.  Others intellectualize it... Both are legitimate forms of
> response, one more widely accepted than another.
>
> While I strongly agree that srj?s posts have been unnecessarily
> inflammatory, callous, and lack any kind of (mature) judgment, they point
> to a truth, and one that many people here (and some of those in the more
> intellectual, white, middle-upper class) feel:
>
> There is a large organization, the largest in the world, that directly and
> indirectly causes untold suffering around the world.  The people who are
> associated with this org. do not see, hear, feel, or care about the
> enormous suffering that the org. with which they are associated inflicts.
>  All of a sudden, the harvest that has been sown by this org. has been
> reaped, and much of that suffering has come back to haunt it, and more
> importantly, the innocent people associated with it. Period.
>
> There are many possible responses to this.  One response that we are
> seeing here at m.sound is that people have been angry, very angry about
> the actions this organization, the US, does.  They see, from international
> media and other sources, the families and individual lives that are
> wrecked all over the world: innocent people.  And they see absolutely no
> remorse from the US or those people associated with it. Now, this here
> tragedy hits; and to many, it almost feels something like justice IS being
> served.  Of course, innocent people should NEVER die. Never, and there is
> never a justification or justice in innocent people dying.  But it is a
> worldwide reality, and one that is commonly experienced by our brothers in
> Palestine, Iraq, Iran, Colombia, Cuba, Afghanistan, Libya, and so on?
>
> And so many of us are angry that innocent people in these countries are
> dying as a direct or indirect result of the US.  We feel their sorrow and
> read about their tragedy (in my case, the situations in Iraq and Palestine
> cause my a lot of grief and suffering).  We don?t feel or care that these
> people are from a different country ? what?s the difference?? Americans,
> Palestinians, Iraqis ? we are all the same!  But those in the US do not
> see this; they just don?t care.
>
> I think many of us don?t identify as Americans so much as people.  And so
> if this attack had taken place somewhere in Africa or the middle east, we
> all know it couldn?t compete with the Shandra Levy media coverage in the
> American collective consciousness.  But because it happened ?here?, it?s
> suddenly as if the world had ended.  Now, 500,000 Tutsis died in three
> months some 6 years ago, which really didn?t register within the American
> consciousness: this event times 33, assuming 15,000 dead.
>
> I think you see where I am going with this.  My point of this post is to
> try to shed some light on what might be and seem like complete emotional
> callousness.  This isn?t about politics as someone had suggested; it?s
> more about a national callousness toward ?others? and ?those over there?
> and those of us who feel angry, hurt, and irritated about...
>
> "all i've heard is,  more gov't spending, bigger military budget, cops on
> planes, first hijacking attempt in 10 years, remove habeus corpus, will
> hunt down the aggressors and MAKE THEM PAY ... i haven't heard one
> intelligent comment on TV and only a select few in day to day affairs
> ...." (Jonah Dempcy)
>
> ... this callousness.
>
> best,
> joe
>
>
> ________________________________
>
> "Consumption is a treatable disease."
>
>                                      Tibor Kalman
>
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====================================
"If people can dance all night,
they can surely plant a few trees."
Paul Speirs, farmer and tree planter,
Southeastern Victoria.
The Age, March 7, 2000
www.tranceplant.org
====================================