[extropy-chat] Dead is Dead (was (no subject))

[MB]

Ah, what a question! Yes, continual footage of man-made horrors should
"raise consciousness" and would likely be a very good thing in many
respects.

That said, I quit watching TV news because it was all such hyped up
nasty negative stuff. What good will it do the world if I don't sleep
well at night and thus slack off on my job? None.

Conundrum. I vote against war. But how to take out the Pol Pots of
the world without it?

Regards,
MB



On Wed, 5 Jan 2005 matus at matus1976.com wrote:

> I really have to wonder what the world would be like if the media
> covered the murderous tyrants of the world as it does to this
> tragedy. If we saw relentless video footage of the victims of Saddam
> Hussein or Kim Jong Il, if survivors were interviewed daily and
> newspapers ran front page photos every day of the tortured, beaten,
> starved or grieving victims of these horrific regimes.  If we saw
> interviews with victims, videos of distressed starving people with
> nothing but the clothes on their back (there is plenty enough of
> that to go around in North Korea, and Burma, and Vietnam, and Laos,
> etc). Kofi Annan said of this tragedy "This is an unprecedented
> global catastrophe, and it requires an unprecedented global
> response. Over the past few days, it has registered deeply in the
> consciousness and conscience of the world as we seek to grasp the
> speed, the force and magnitude with which it happened" How is
> 100,000 dead 'unprecendented'? Have we never had to wrestle with
> grasping th! e speed, force, and magnitude in which Pol Pot took
> power and killed millions of Cambodians, or Saddam's Anfal campaign
> wiped out 10's of thousands of Kurds. Or Kim Jong Il's rusting
> factories and barren fields starved millions?  It is absurd and
> greatly distressing and angering. Why does the media and the
> international community not care when governments kill hundreds of
> thousands, but fight over each other to show support and help those
> in need when a wave or an earthquake does it?