Skip to main content

Nr. 42

Although the media is dominated by politics these days every so often I do read about either shootings, terror attacks in the Middle East or Asia, and natural disasters causing mass deaths. When these things happen in the western world social media is flooded with thoughts and prayers, profile photos with a flagged face and so forth. I don’t really mind that, and I could write another post about why we do this and why those reasons are benign even if riddled with ulterior motives. What I want to address though is the people who are upset as to why we are not showing the same outrage and empathy when it happens in third world countries. And there is a point to that, however, it doesn’t mean everyone doesn’t care whether people die or not. It’s natural that the impact of people closer to you have significantly stronger emotional pull than those further away. You might say it’s different if it’s family or friends but fellow citizens are still strangers equally to those farther away. And in term of knowing them, yes, but we are beginning to brush into tribalism and patriotic care. If you identify as a citizen of that country you will feel a stronger bond. It doesn’t mean you don’t care about the human race if you don’t feel that same pull by someone far away. The people in other continents might (not) care the same amount when things happen in Europe or America. 


I would love to see that one day we could identify ourselves as equal human beings all over the world and look at the bigger picture collectively. Shaming people for only give empathy to close ones seems misguided. I get the point and it is true that the impact of untimely deaths are tragic no matter where in the world it happens, but there is a better way to address this issue than to be aggressive towards people. Because let’s face it...those who cry out about this injustice has also an equal amount of ulterior motives of being regarded as wiser, kinder, and clairvoyant when it comes to world issues. Maybe we should focus on how we can best convey our message (and also reflect on what our true agenda really is). 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nr. 60

Next month I’m attending a wedding. I’ve been so busy thinking about practical things (like finding a suit to wear and what to bring as it is for a weekend getaway) that I didn’t realize until now that I actually need to socialize. Meaning talk about my current situation. I’m officially on sick leave due to depression which isn’t really the most festive conversation starter at a wedding (or any event really). As much as I really want to celebrate my friends getting married, I simultaneously feel stressed as to have I’m gonna phrase this. I know there are people out there with far greater difficulties than me, even within my friend circle probably, which makes me even more frustrated about my worry. I’m positive I will get through it of course. I even know despite my definite self torment of reviewing my ‘performance’ I will get by.  But I still feel slightly anxious about it. I used to be ok attending events with strangers when I could smalltalk about my work and then swiftly...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nr. 64

Nr. 64 I’ve known for quite some time now how little I care about myself. It’s one of the reasons why I had no problem giving everything of myself to others, as I feel I have nothing worth saving for myself (which has opened my eyes to one big reason why my relationships hasn’t work out, but that’s another story). It sounds awfully self pitying, except that I don’t really feel sorry for myself nor do expect others to either. I can change the way I think about or view myself, but that would be trying to mask or bypass what’s objectively true. Normally I would be ok with this ridiculous dejection, but when it is combined with a ‘low’ it can turn quite unappetizing and worth hiding. I have a small core base of people willing to help me. Who are waiting for my call. Even though at this point it’s like waiting for Godot. Even my psychiatrist asked me the other day why I didn’t call when I was at my worst last week. I couldn’t really give her a good answer. Pride? Stubbornness? Or pe...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nr. 61

During yesterday’s afternoon I had to lie down to rest. I had only gotten 2 hours of sleep the night before so it was definitely needed. I woke up abruptly well into the evening from a nightmare. Or it wasn’t so much of a nightmare as much as a psychological warp that changed how I view myself. I’m still trying to come to terms with it.  The dream had its normal amount of absurdities; I was part of a group hiding from a murderer who was hunting us. The team consisted of me, some friends of mine, Casey Neistat, Mila Kunis, and a robotic version of Hachiko. We were all hiding in this large locked down house. The murderer was in here with us. I had a gun which fired small amounts of glue, but if I did hit someone the glue would explode.  I was eventually spotted by the murderer and I fired off a serious of point blank shots to his face and neck. They exploded one by one. Nothing happened to him. We then warped into an abstract world where we would fight strategically using ...
Post a Comment
Read more