"Write me as a tragedy..."
Will someone tell, well, everyone else that they're using the words "Tragic" and "Tragedy" wrong. By my understanding of it a tragedy is a situation in which an otherwise great or good person is brought to an unavoidable, catastrophic end due to some flaw in their character. The inevitable ruin of a great figure. Tragic shouldn't be used as another synonym for "sad" or "unfortunate" or "regrettable", it cheapens the word and spoils it for it's proper meaning.
Twice in the last couple of weeks I've heard people describe news stories as tragedies and in neither case was that even remotely appropriate. The first, and most ridiculous, was in a statement by the Prime minister of Australia (Kevin whatsisface, you know, him). Some of you might remember, during the last spate of severe bush fires that hit that country, that video footage emerged of an injured Koala approaching a fire crew and being offered water. It was all very cute and hope-inspiring, I'm sure. Last week Sam, the Koala, was "put to sleep" because she was dying from cysts related to Chlamydia. So, entirely unrelated to any injuries she might have sustained during the bush fires. Anyway, Kevin Rudd (that's the one, Prime minister Kevin Rudd) had this to say - "Sam the koala was part of the symbolism of [the hope that Australia could endure the fires] and it's tragic that Sam the koala is no longer with us,". "Tragic", apparently, that a Koala has died of a disease that apparently affects about 50% of the Koala population. Doesn't sound all that tragic to me, more "unsurprising" or "quite routine", possibly "a bit sad".
The second occurrence was related to the death of a boy playing in a railway depot in Liverpool last week. The boy (I won't use his name to avoid this showing up in search results) was killed when climbing on top of trains near to overhead cables carrying 25,000 volts of electrical power. Seemingly ignoring the facts that the kid had had to break into the depot to get anywhere near these cables and was then dumb enough to climb up near enough to be killed, a police statement described the whole affair as "an extremely tragic incident". "Extremely tragic" no less, not just, as some of us may have thought, "unfortunate", maybe "disappointing" or even, if I'm feeling particularly uncharitable, "deserved" but "extremely tragic". What exactly was this boy's fatal flaw, do we think? His arrogance in ignoring the warning signs and fences? His lack of respect for other people's property or privacy? His ignorance of the dangers of high voltage electricity cables? The, and I will admit this is an assumption, the poor parenting he received in order to act this way? There seem quite a few to choose from, perhaps it's that profusion of character flaws that defines this as an "extreme" tragedy over and above a simple tragedy. Or then again, perhaps not.
Given the recent news that some of us have received about a friend, I could make comments about actual tragedy but even then I'd probably be guilty of hyperbole, not to mention the lack of taste in using something so horrible and personal to demonstrate an unrelated point. So I won't, I'll perhaps have something to say about that at a later date. But for now, the next time someone tells you how tragic it was that their pet tortoise died of natural causes at the age of 93, give them a good hearty slap from me.
People are stupid.
Twice in the last couple of weeks I've heard people describe news stories as tragedies and in neither case was that even remotely appropriate. The first, and most ridiculous, was in a statement by the Prime minister of Australia (Kevin whatsisface, you know, him). Some of you might remember, during the last spate of severe bush fires that hit that country, that video footage emerged of an injured Koala approaching a fire crew and being offered water. It was all very cute and hope-inspiring, I'm sure. Last week Sam, the Koala, was "put to sleep" because she was dying from cysts related to Chlamydia. So, entirely unrelated to any injuries she might have sustained during the bush fires. Anyway, Kevin Rudd (that's the one, Prime minister Kevin Rudd) had this to say - "Sam the koala was part of the symbolism of [the hope that Australia could endure the fires] and it's tragic that Sam the koala is no longer with us,". "Tragic", apparently, that a Koala has died of a disease that apparently affects about 50% of the Koala population. Doesn't sound all that tragic to me, more "unsurprising" or "quite routine", possibly "a bit sad".
The second occurrence was related to the death of a boy playing in a railway depot in Liverpool last week. The boy (I won't use his name to avoid this showing up in search results) was killed when climbing on top of trains near to overhead cables carrying 25,000 volts of electrical power. Seemingly ignoring the facts that the kid had had to break into the depot to get anywhere near these cables and was then dumb enough to climb up near enough to be killed, a police statement described the whole affair as "an extremely tragic incident". "Extremely tragic" no less, not just, as some of us may have thought, "unfortunate", maybe "disappointing" or even, if I'm feeling particularly uncharitable, "deserved" but "extremely tragic". What exactly was this boy's fatal flaw, do we think? His arrogance in ignoring the warning signs and fences? His lack of respect for other people's property or privacy? His ignorance of the dangers of high voltage electricity cables? The, and I will admit this is an assumption, the poor parenting he received in order to act this way? There seem quite a few to choose from, perhaps it's that profusion of character flaws that defines this as an "extreme" tragedy over and above a simple tragedy. Or then again, perhaps not.
Given the recent news that some of us have received about a friend, I could make comments about actual tragedy but even then I'd probably be guilty of hyperbole, not to mention the lack of taste in using something so horrible and personal to demonstrate an unrelated point. So I won't, I'll perhaps have something to say about that at a later date. But for now, the next time someone tells you how tragic it was that their pet tortoise died of natural causes at the age of 93, give them a good hearty slap from me.
People are stupid.