Hey, remember the 226,000 people who died on Dec. 26th, 2004, in the tsunami?
When's the last time you heard about them, thought about them?
Should I feel bad? Should I feel callous? Should I feel guilty for living after a quarter of a million people died in an instant? I'm not sure what I feel. I suppose I feel the same way when I think of the millions of Africans dying of malaria, sickle-cell anemia and AIDS every year: I just don't think about it. It doesn't fit into my schedule.
When it comes down to it, I feel powerless to change the world. Or at least - I can't really change the world without putting in a good deal of effort...so instead I'll just feel bad occasionally and call it good.
We call 226,000 deaths a disaster. We call a pedestrian being hit by a car an accident. If a baby was killed, it's a tragic accident. It's all the same, really. Deaths are happening around us all the time and we hardly pay attention. It's not newsworthy unless it invokes pathos - either fear or pity; and it's not worthy of our personal attention unless it affects us.
The fact is we're all going to die. We know this. I think that's why we're able to shrug off 1 death or 1/4 million deaths - because we think, "Hey, I'll be joining you soon." Death is fair because it is impartial. Death is tumbling dice.
The difference is when we're affected: when someone close to us dies. At that point we're left with a paradox in our minds as we transition from loving a person to loving a memory. We feel abandoned and angry...and guilty for living. 
At that point we start questioning the randomness of death. We don't want random. We want meaning: "My life has been changed forever. I want to know why." If it was an accident, I want to know who to blame, and then I'm going to sue them to show them that they are to blame and rid me of my own feelings of guilt.
Sometimes we justify that death by saying (as is the case of firemen): at least he died for something. With the tsunami disaster that justification doesn't exist. We're left with nothing ... and so we forget about it and go about our business.
7 years ago
4 comments:
I think humanity as a whole has been wrestling more with its concept of death (in terms of self:masses) in the last century or so than ever before. Hundreds of years ago, when we didnt have television, airplanes, and the internet, problems were more localized. You could be going about your daily business in your small city or village having no clue that a tsunami swallowed millions of people on the other side of the planet. You didnt have to face those issues.
Now that the world has become smaller, in a sense, we find ourselves having to process the meaning/value of life on a grand scale....mourn the loss of such large numbers of people that we can't fathom our relative positions to their death. We can only identify with them in an abstract way. Its boggling.
That's true. In a disaster, we are faced with something that is intellectually saddening but emotionally uneventful. The only way it touches us at an emotional level is 1) if we lost someone, 2) if we were there, 3) if we imagine having been there or having lost someone.
We have no frame of reference unless we create one.
And so we come off as cold or self-centered. I think the most amazing people are those who take their feelings of empathy - artificial though they may be - and ACT on them by going over to SE Asia and volunteering, or assembling humanitarian kits, or even going out of their way to donate $. I think the majority of people's "action" is merely feeling bad for a few minutes...and yet somehow our minds accept that as having done something. I don't think we realize we do this. That's why it's somewhat surprising to me when I realize that something like the tsunami or 9-11 that seemed so huge and emotionally pervasive at one time...now never comes up and has no effect on me: it makes me realize how cold and rational most of us are.
mmhmmm. now that the sound bytes are gone, its outta sight outta mind most of the time. still, i don't think its that we're too cold and rational. by sheer fact that you bring it up on your blog it shows that you, like a lot of us, are still haunted by a lot of these things. You obviously WANT to do something. As the saying goes, you have to help yourself before you can help somebody else...get in a position where you're able to go volunteer. Even then, you can't spread yourself so thin as to be doing something to solve all the world's problems. You have to take them one at a time. On a personal scale, you can find someone struggling and suffering as much as some of the tsunami victims on the streets of your own city. There is an endless variety of pain to be experienced, and there will always be an endless number of people to experience it. Its overwhelming and boggling and sad. This is where the mediation of a good personal philosophy/paradigm come in, and that can be hard as hell.
I just wanted to say, great topic and great comments by both of ye. I don't have anything to add that wouldn't sound banal or trite; but I wanted to say that I have certainly appreciated the post and the insightful comments. This is something I've often thought about myself, and these words have given me something additional to gnaw on when my thoughts turn to calamity. Thanks, guys.
"Guys" in the non-gender-specific sense, of course.
Post a Comment