most of you have probably heard about the devastation in japan already, but i don't think you heard about it - in the right way. and yes, i know that critiquing anything about a natural disaster this quickly is like pulling off a scab before it’s healed. but the media's coverage of these events always leaves me in a state of helpless anxiety and i’ve always wanted to understand their need to open-palm slam the panic button with such a cemented predisposition.
the media has always been a catalyst for spreading panic and over exaggerations, but i've never understood the motivation behind it. maybe the media and the government like to play footsies under the table. and the resulting alarm from their coupling is a means of exploiting the generosity of their citizens. or maybe it's because the general public loves the drama of devastation and chaos. it could also be that we've become so desensitized to killings and rapings and general bloodshed and loss, that the media has to naturally evolve its reporting style from tame to hyperbolatic. but what to do, and i mean actually do, when something like this happens?
i think that we’ve been trained to do the only thing we know how to do, and that is: donate. and donate till you can write yourself off into a lower tax bracket. and since the media isn’t going to stop playing wack-a-mole with the panic button, shouldn’t our sympathy-reflex produce a different reaction? because panic is fine.. but it's what you do after the panic that matters.
saturday musings
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