It was bound to come up. Just surprising that it came so quickly.
I have a couple thoughts running through my mind, just now. One is from Douglas Adams, regarding unhappy people and little green pieces of paper. The other is from the Men in Black movie, where the monster cockroach from outer space goes on about humans and their short, pointless lives. The general idea, here, that I'm talking about, is self-absorbed bipeds, breathing up my oxygen.
There was one nasty sonofabitch, of an earthquake, that rattled the hell out of Japan yesterday. Seriously intense, it's being called one of the Great Quakes, already, because it's magnitude put in more than one top-10 list. The aftermath is still being felt and will be felt for days, weeks, probably months, if not years, in fact. Like people that talk about the massive Christmas Tsunami of 2004, this quake and it's tsunami will be remembered for a LONG time.
I don't feel a personal connection with natural disasters. Like every other rubberneck, at an accident scene, I'm curious to see how bad things can get. It occurs to me, though, that just like a car accident on the highway? I'm not that far removed from being a victim, myself. Or having a loved one, one of my family or close friends getting hurt, or worse, is always just a c-hair from being my reality. I know this. I also know that I have made friends all around this little planet we call Earth. I empathize. I feel compassion. I care, even though I'm what some would consider a tragedy junkie.
What I'm trying to say is, even though I watch NASCAR for the potential crashes I still hope that nobody dies in the 37 car wreck at Dover. I am NOT that self absorbed, that peoples lives (no matter how much I detest the human race) become valueless.
I'm put off by people, right now, that have dismissed the events, across the Pacific Ocean, as trivial or, worse yet, interfering with their normal routine. Do I live in Japan? Was my house washed away? Did I lose everything I own in the tsunami? No. I know people that have lived there, been there and I quite likely know people that are in Japan, right now. That's not the point, though. It is a major event. The city workers that didn't get out and salt the roads, right away, to cover the day's melting and freezing is relatively minor, in comparison. Seriously.
What some governor has to say, what some pundit is going on about, in regards to citizens and their imagined rights just seems a little overshadowed, to me. Giving me a 43 page rant about how I'm supposed to stand up for my neighbors, several states away, and what some pompous ass deemed more important than disasters around the world is not going to sway me. I have my own opinion, and I know how to use.
So here's the crux: whether that disaster is in Louisiana, New Jersey, Haiti or Honshu it is still a disaster. It might not be happening to you, personally, but it IS happening to a lot of others. Don't try and tell me where my priorities should lie, just because you are an insensitive, self-absorbed, compassion-free slug. If all you want is to mind your own business, and ignore the world around you, don't let me stop you. But don't expect me to join you, either. Yes, I avoid the news as much as possible. I'm apathetic about a great many things. I have enough to deal with, on my own plate. But that doesn't mean my heart has stopped beating. And just because I want to document devastation and see the destruction does NOT mean I agree with you about "those people don't matter"! They matter to somebody, dammit.
Why can't tragedy just strike those that need it? Desperately. Just for a little perspective. Fucking "pointless lives"... look who's talking!
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ChainLightning started a blog post Knew it was coming...Knew it was coming...
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^this is exactly what's destroying us.
I mean, I understand not having some sort of vested interest in what's happening, wherever. A tsunami on the other side of the world or an unfit mother 3 miles down the road. But there *has* to be a line there, somewhere, that separates simple ignorant apathy from derisive antipathy. It's the classic gang neighborhood crime: 300 witnesses and not a single one saw anything. "I'm not getting involved." It's very sad.
I feel insulted that I was thought to be of the same mind because of tasteless jokes and video interest (in the destruction) and an across-the-board dismissal of my so-called moral imperatives. How in the hell can that be taken as an active disregard for any and all tragedies that don't involve me, personally? That's a conclusion that just cannot be reached - there's no bridge, roads don't go there and all flights have been canceled.
My contempt for the human species does not manifest itself in disdain for strangers' plights, during major catastrophes, by any stretch. I am still compassionate. I'm still an empath. I still care.
But I also know how to laugh in the face of death. I've pretty much had an close relationship with the Reaper, all my life. I will not give up joy, so easily; and spend my life being miserable.