I was just checking out the daily headlines and was greeted by this banner on CNN.com:
"Watch Israeli warships shell Tyre live on CNN Pipeline."
We are now invited into the thick of a highly publicized, dangerous, deadly WAR. And for what? Entertainment. I wonder what the American public's reaction would have been in 1943 if they were able to witness our battles with Japan or in 1945 actually watch our troops land in France? Oh, we've seen the movies "Pearl Harbor" and "Saving Private Ryan," but I think watching young men and women really dying (and not being Ben Affleck or Tom Hanks, because their mere presence reminds us that all the blood is fake and the battles are designed by special effects people) would be majorly sickening and traumatic. When's the last time you saw someone lose an arm or get shot or die a violent death? In real life, probably never. On TV, probably last night. But you might get that chance to see it on CNN Pipeline.
I am getting more and more dissatisfied with the way things are around here. Maybe I'm having an early mid-life crisis and questioning things now. Or maybe I feel this way because I watched George Carlin last night and he had some pretty good points about the way we treat others and our constant need to be entertained. Or maybe I've just had enough of our superficial, selfish, whiny, hypocritical society.
Sorry for the rant.
Friday, August 11, 2006
There's Something Terribly Wrong With the World Today
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2 comments:
Actually, during the civil war, southern "womenfolk" would sit on the sidelines of early battlefields and watch the Union and Confederate armies volley cannon and small-arms fire at each other. The women would come dressed in ball attire and carry parasols to protect themselves from the heat.
(In a side-note, it is interesting that most southern "womenfolk" prefer not to stay on the sidelines of the battlefield any longer. What gives?)
Husband of a southern woman
Also, remember they used to broadcast the body bags during the early parts of the Vietnam War (I refuse to call it the Vietnam "Conflict" - it was a WAR). And not so very long a ago, you could watch the US shelling Sebria (when we were try to oust Slobodan Milosevic) live on cable TV channels. Sadly, the internet feeds are simply the next version of the same old thing.
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