Every time we turn on the news, we’re faced with pain, suffering and violence. We subscribe to the belief that we are a self-destructive race, made ever more so by the advances in science and technology, providing bigger, more effective weaponry. Whenever we turn on the TV – or access the internet – there’s news of another act of terrorism, a murder, violent protests or an act of war.
If it’s not an act of man it’s an act of nature, tearing countries and lives apart, becoming more and more common. It seems that we can not get through a few months without another volcano, flood, earthquake or devastating storm somewhere in the world. Many people – myself included – believe in the Gaya Shrug theory: Gaya simply ‘shrugs’ off the entities that upset her and cause pain. It must be said that, although lives are lost and man-made structures destroyed when a natural disaster occurs, the earth remains fairly unscathed.
But is that all it is? Are we flooded with news of death, destruction and violence more than years gone by because science and technology has improved so much and because mother nature has had enough of our destructive ways? Maybe. But can I suggest an alternative? We have greater access to news media than ever before. For example, on Monday afternoon, a suicide bomber attacked Domodedovo airport in Russia. Less than an hour after the explosion, I received a ‘breaking news’ email. 20 or 30 years ago, news agencies didn’t have the technology to hear about something that happened 1560miles away the moment it happened and cascade it down to readers and viewers immediately. Incidents are immediately fed back to us, the viewer, regardless of where (or when) it happens.
Please don’t get me wrong, I’m sure that the rate of acts of terrorism, war, violence and destruction is higher now than it was in my mother’s day, for example, but are we not also victims of information saturation? Maybe a little bit of ignorance is, indeed, bliss?
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