April 18, 2013

• Voice of Reason: Bombs and the Media

  

  Two home made bombs exploded in Boston, Mass.,USA, on Monday, shortly after the Boston Marathon ended, killing 3 people. Almost immediately, with only the event and no information concerning either perpetrator(s) or motive(s), the occurrence became the latest fusilade in the “war on terror” in the U.S.

  Even President Obama vowed “justice” would prevail, and the evil terrorists would be caught, tried, and punished.

  It’s difficult to escape the “news”, speculation, and punditry two days later. Although the only real news we have is that the event occurred. Everyone has an opinion. Condolences are going out to the victims and their families. Photos of wounded bystanders blanket the internet news feeds. The phrase “Not since 9/11…” has been bandied about interminably.

  Not so coincidentally, I haven’t watched “TV News” since the 9/11 attacks. The tone and tenor of “the media” disgusts me. I prefer to investigate events myself using the internet as a tool. (although a lot of BS has to be waded through to get to facts.) Yesterday morning someone at work had the TV in the break room turned to more opinions and speculations on one of the morning “news” shows. I passed by without listening.

  In the hours surrounding this widely reported “terrorist attack” in Boston, the world turned as usual, and the usual events kept happening in other countries, but the “media” is still reporting every conjecture they can record with their microphones and visualize with their cameras.

  If I watched TV news, I’d probably be afraid to walk out the door. As it is, I keep seeing the same photos and reading the same “sound bytes” on the internet.

  Bombs don’t usually explode in public places in the U.S. of A. This is “news” to those of us who live here. The day of the Boston “attacks”, over 30 people were killed in bombings in Iraq, and over 15 in Pakistan, but those stories are pushed to the back pages of the US media. Over the years, I have shuddered with pessimistic chagrin at the pictures of hollowed out shells of once great cities all over the world. In countries with similar sounding names, forgotten grand human achievements are destroyed daily. Two or three generations of people live (if one can call it living) day to day with the threat heavy in the air that they could be instantly killed at the bus stop, in the marketplace, or sitting in their easy chair in their own living rooms. This “way of life”, or more correctly, “way of death” is business as usual for a great many in a great many places all over this earth of ours.

  It’s a big country here in the USA, and lots of “news” concerning “evil” intentions, individuals, and ideologies is ever present. The same day that somebody or some group planted shrapnel bombs along the route of the Boston Marathon, a guy in Orange County, CA decided to plant a bomb in his own house. His explosive suicide was trumped by the Boston events, however. It probably would have been more newsworthy if the bomb had more power, and the people next door had been killed or wounded.

  So far, our great American cities haven’t been reduced to the rubble one would encounter in other parts of the world, where sectarian violence, civil war, clashing ideologies, infighting, coups, etc. etc. etc. serve to create an atmosphere of continual terror and destruction. Pundits, internet philosophers, and supposed “newspeople” are always quick to tackle stories like the Boston Marathon Bombings (and supply mountains of conjecture about the causes) because they still mistakenly believe “it can’t happen here.”

  Throughout history, one great civilization after another has grown too big for it’s britches, tried to police the known world, gather it’s resources, and make a place for itself in the history books. Throughout history, those civilizations have succumbed eventually to failure because of sectarian violence, civil war, clashing ideologies, infighting, coups, etc. etc. etc.

  One step forward for mankind, and another two or ten steps back.

  And it can happen here. It can happen anywhere. “Evil” is a part of human nature.

  In the USA, bloggers and journalists are wondering who planted the bombs in Boston. We’re on the edge of our seat. Some are already laying blame. Does it matter? Of course it matters that any human being who performs such a heinous act. But it ultimately doesn’t matter “who” is to blame, because we might as well say “human nature is to blame.” The media will continue to spotlight and endlessly dissect news events such as this, even though there are lots of good things going on in the world as well, and there are lots of neighbors in many countries around the world who actually get along with each other and help each other out.

  Hopefully the perpetrators will be caught and punished. Hopefully evil will disappear in the world. However, if the first happens the second most probably won’t. I may even state with possible certainty that evil will never disappear. What upsets me when I listen to the voice of reason is that the endless reporting and dissecting of evil on such a monumental scale by the media seems to incite conflicted and confused individuals to try doing the same kinds of things in order to insure they go out with a “bang” in the media. The U.S. is forever embroiled in arguments concerning the safety of it’s citizens. Are there too many or too few gun controls? Should we start banning more books? Are our leaders going to help us? How about God?

  It all boils down to disputed territoriality and ideologies. It always has. It always will. And each nation, each civilization, which mindlessly and unfortunately attempts to control everyone and everything in it’s view, will eventually crumble from both without and within. It’s happened before. The Fall of (any given) Empire is a time tested tale. The view is getting a lot larger in scope, too, when you consider how many “drone aircraft” are “targeting” “evil insurgents” in countires foreign to the U.S. (And oftentimes garnering “collateral damge” as killing innocent civilians is called nowadays.)

  I don’t have answers. I hope the crazies with the guns and the crazies with the bombs don’t aim anything at me. But it could happen. And the voice of reason tells me it is more apt to happen when humans either can’t or won’t get along and consider reasoned discourse over sensationalist news reportage, biased opinionating, and quarreling with each other.

  I’m sure I’ll read somewhere that now marathon runners should be armed. I find it somehow ironic that initial news reports identified other marathons which were going to go on as scheduled. Terror doesn’t repeat itself exactly, and evil can show up at any time.

  Three people in Boston die in what will probably turn out to be an isolated incident “perpetrated” by some crazy. Big news. All over the TV.

  30 or 40 people die in one of those similar sounding countries Americans hardly pay attention to and nobody notices. Business as usual.

  When the media, the intelligentsia, the pundits and the duly elected leaders of the world are able to find the connecting thread between these events, then possibly the world can come to some kind of understanding. The voice of reason tells me this is still possible, even as I age, and even as the reports I receive from “the media’ seem to tell a different story.

   

  (First entry from me in a while, eh? Tx for the rex) Posted: April 17, 2013 10:15 AM

  • 9:14 am
  • 7 Comments