There is a constant barrage of misery advertised in this world, the news is full of it. The earthquake in Mexico is a good example of the sport in it all, the advertising value of the catastrophes that tear apart people's lives. Graphics and death toll counts are filling the news screens, the search engines, the social media platforms.
For some, they are concerned about loved ones and friends that are potentially in the area but for most, it is morbid curiosity, another talking point. A car bomb goes off, a school shooting, a tornado. They are all just topics of conversation as long as they do not come too close, do not strike home.
I am not against these people, I am not fit to pass judgement but it is a cultural phenomenon that we live in as we are bombarded with a continual attack of global information that we consume. And the more we consume, the more desensitized we become. This means that for us to click the next story, it has to be a little more tragic, a little more violent, a little worse to evoke the same response, to make us buy.
News has become an addiction and we are told that without it, we are insensitive, uninformed and ignorant. The ones that tell us this happen to be the same people that are selling the devastation, the same ones profiteering from the suffering of others. It is a con as old as time, snake oil for an imaginary affliction.
The real disasters play out after the camera crews have gone and the next news cycle has washed clean the memory of what had just happened, what still is happening. It is the people on the ground, the ones picking through the rubble that is their new reality, burying those that had the misfortune of being in the wrong place when the pendulum of luck was at the other end of the swing.
We never learn those names, even though we may hear them, for to us they are representational of the event itself, like characters in a play. But, those names reverberate in the hearts of those that knew them forever. They are not random faces bleeding into the gutter or faceless bodies floating down stream, they are humans, people loving and loved for years, people that aspired to do more, somebody's child, a high school sweetheart.
We monetize and productize people's lives until we no longer see life itself. Yes, there is heartache and pain, there is an endless supply of suffering available in this world and to view it in this way, there is seemingly nothing to be done. The problems are all just too big.
But, we need not solve all to start the process towards solution, we just need to act here and now, help one and then maybe that gives us insight into how to help another, possibly two or maybe a family of five. The news does not make us feel this is possible, they do not want us to switch off their service and do something about it.
In the face of suffering, the only useful act is one of compassion. We have these opportunities every day, very few of them will ever make the news. But, the person that is helped, the two or the family of five will have real space made, real opportunity to survive and if lucky, maybe even thrive to be able to look after themselves and potentially help others in time.
Some of the people that need the most help, a shoulder of support or a friendly ear to listen are those closest to us, those that may even be under our own roof. We take the power we have to help for granted and rarely see the pain behind eyes we see every day, behind names that if lost, would echo forever within us.
We do not need the news to see this, we do not need a charity to be charitable.
Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]