Responses to Tragedy

[Sukerkin]

It has struck me before how it appears natural for us to be able to compartmentalise and be dispassionate about ill things befalling a great many people, such as the terrible loss of life in the recent Japanese tsunami or the strife in places such as Libya. The numbers involved seem to cause us to leach the emotion from our reactions, probably as a form of self-preservation because we just could not process that much grief or horror.

When things happen at a more individual scale it is less easy to do so. This case of a lovely girl snatched from the street and murdered is one of those. Watching her father on the news was unbearable sad, it brings tears to my eyes just writing about it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-12877113

It certainly seems to have become a 'lightning rod' for the stresses of the people of that area. I haven't seen scenes of anger like that outside a British court for quite some time.

 

[Flea]

I think it comes down to a question of "safety." First, it's socially acceptable to cry over news footage of an incomprehensible disaster. I'll never forget how it was completely normal in the weeks immediately following 9/11 for people to break down and cry in public. Even if the disaster doesn't affect someone personally it's a good camouflage to hide behind if you need to have an outburst.

Secondly, the abstract nature of "national tragedy" is something we can grasp without blowing a gasket. When it's something next door you run the risk of emotional overload, or potentially spending a night in jail for popping someone. So it really can be more pragmatic for the Greater Good and one's own mental health to create a psychological distance. I don't think it makes any of us bad people for doing so.