Sunday, May 29, 2016

The One vs The Many


 All too often at the moment, I look at the news and am overwhelmed with the scope of unrest, damage, pain, or other negative images and stories. And as much as I hate to admit it, it is often hard to humanise the stories unless I have a specific connection or insight to them.

The tragedy in Fort McMurray, recently, for example... I could see the horrible things that were occurring, but I didn't emotionally invest anything in the story until I began to think about the people I know who are there. Even though these people were not directly involved, I suddenly had an emotional tie to the whole ordeal and watched further reports with more of an emotional than intellectual involvement.

I question whether it is me that is 'at fault' for this lack of an empathic response or if it is a combination of being constantly exposed to similar stories, presented in fairly detached news reports,  and the general inability to connect with every story of loss or pain without losing your hold on yourself.

Sometimes it is too easy these days to disassociate. We are bombarded with images of pain and devastation and become desensitised to the actual effects. Why does it take terrible things landing close to home to make us respond?

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