Sociology post
Kids growing up in the U.S. are taught from birth to take pride first and foremost in being an American citizen, not a world citizen. This makes some sense--if we think of the whole world as our community, then it's gonna be a lot harder to justify waging a war against them. Looking at the demographics, most Americans have a lot more in common with other Americans than they do with the rest of the world. The U.S. has a per capita GDP (PPP) of $43,500, where as over 3.8 billion people live on less then US$2 a day. The world's infant mortality rate is 48.87 deaths per 1,000 births, and the U.S.'s is 6.43. So maybe we aren't taught to grieve every global tragedy as if it happened in our neighborhood because most people in the U.S. simply can't conceive of the suffering going on. Or do we just become numb to it? 15 people killed in a bombing is bad, but not as bad as 152. People dying by the thousands of AIDS each day is bad, but maybe not as bad as the thousands being tortured and murdered. Maybe apathy is a defense mechanism. Mourning every cruel, unjust death would be a constant event. You could never stop--you'd be perpetually grieving.
If we're so used to ignoring cruel murders, if that is the norm, then what makes some events grab our attention? Is it the spectacalar numbers, or method in which the people died? Is it the award-winning pictures of starving children, the headlines splashed over newspapers? Do we have to be told when is the appropriate time to be angry, to be distraught, to be guilty? We've all seen the numbers--the millions who die every year, the millions more who live in hopeless poverty, in constant warfare. Is it that there are too many numbers? We no longer see the people behind those numbers--it's just a few digits, a few lines. We don't see the faces, the stories, the lives destroyed.
Maybe we do feel despair, but overwhelming that is hopelessness. Genocides have been occuring for millenia. Starvation has been happening since the beginning of time. Besides, we're all going to die anyway. Does it matter how much we suffer before that happens? There are over six billion people on this planet--so many are suffering, is it possible to change that? The sheer numbers are astounding, how could we possibly have an effect?
If we're so used to ignoring cruel murders, if that is the norm, then what makes some events grab our attention? Is it the spectacalar numbers, or method in which the people died? Is it the award-winning pictures of starving children, the headlines splashed over newspapers? Do we have to be told when is the appropriate time to be angry, to be distraught, to be guilty? We've all seen the numbers--the millions who die every year, the millions more who live in hopeless poverty, in constant warfare. Is it that there are too many numbers? We no longer see the people behind those numbers--it's just a few digits, a few lines. We don't see the faces, the stories, the lives destroyed.
Maybe we do feel despair, but overwhelming that is hopelessness. Genocides have been occuring for millenia. Starvation has been happening since the beginning of time. Besides, we're all going to die anyway. Does it matter how much we suffer before that happens? There are over six billion people on this planet--so many are suffering, is it possible to change that? The sheer numbers are astounding, how could we possibly have an effect?