I’m not sure if anyone is expecting me to comment on the recent catastrophe in Japan, but I’m not going to. A really tragic thing has happened, is still happening, and the effects of it will continue to be felt for many months and years to come. I have no more insight to offer than that, and I won’t make any more comments about it unless a story comes out of the tragedy that intersects with the subject matter of this blog.
The Crommunist Manifesto
"The stubborn persistence of chauvinism in our life and letters is or ought to be the proper subject for critical study, not the occasion for displays of shock." - C. Hitchens
I’m not commenting on this piece. But I will put these words here to emphasize the irony.
Quite so. I wish most media outlets would learn to do the same – reporting on a tragedy is important, doubtless, but the ghoulish fixation with death and suffering instead of matters of international importance depresses me greatly. I saw this particularly with the Christchurch earthquake, being an Australian, but it’s been taken to a new extreme with Japan.
It’s an awful, awful situation, but all that insistent, ceaseless reporting on it does is satisfy the voyeuristic urges of media consumers. Ick.