When we were first tasked with creating a blog in class, I was not quite sure what I would write for my first post: something more topical, or something that I was more passionate about (the two were mutually exclusive with the kinds of ideas I had at the time). In the wake of Hurricane Irene, I tossed around the idea of writing a post about America's obsession with tragedy, an issue that became apparent when outlets like the Weather Channel released their ratings from their coverage of the big storm. As it turns out, Americans have a strange fascination with watching disasters happen and seeing just how disastrous they can be (spoiler: they can be pretty disastrous). What, for many people, was a life-threatening tempest was, for millions of viewers, an epic, real-life drama. I ultimately decided to scrap the Irene post, though, and never found a good time or reason to go back to it.
That is, until I started reading White Noise. The book explores, to a great extent, the relationship Americans have with mass media, including commentary on our obsession with death. Clearly, we love to witness destruction, whether it is in the form of a Weather Channel reporter being knocked to his feet by a gust of wind or an unmistakably horrific car crash on the side of the road that you just can't help but gawk at when you drive past. We've all been there, why can't we look away?
Well, according to professor Emily Godbey, we've been gawking since the beginning of the industrial revolution. In an article on AlterNet called "Appetite for Destruction: Why Are Americans So Obsessed with Disaster?" Godbey claims that after the spread of industrialism gave birth to a working class all with very similar, mundane lives (the "flattening of experience" that O'Connor discussed in class earlier this week), "the unexpected, no matter what it is, brings a certain kind of excitement to people's lives." Yet this explanation does not fully explain why people, Americans especially, choose tragedy, disaster and destruction to satisfy this need for excitment. To this, Godbey argues that "it's a safe way to get a thrill. We're able to confront a common underlying fear - the fear of dying - without having to live through it ourselves." In the same way that DeLillo's Jack Gladney faces death by immersing himself in the study of the world's greatest villain and murderer, Adolf Hitler, many Americans tune into the Weather Channel each year to study the next great killer hurricane.
This love of death and danger is apparent in the television shows we love to watch as well, many of which were analyzed as part of our TV Tokenism project. Shows like 24, a wildly popular drama focused on a man who kills people who try to kill lots of people, is built upon the premise that the entire world is in imminent danger and bathed in an atmosphere of looming death. Even in fiction TV entertainment, people have shown that they prefer a sense of danger over comfort. The new film Act of Valor (starring active duty Navy SEALs!), too, depicts a world on the brink of total nuclear apocalypse to provide its thrills. If nothing else, it's definitely an interesting cultural phenomenon that devastation and destruction become topics which, when depicted with enough dramatic flair, bring us so much joy.
What do you think? Is it a dangerous habit to derive joy and entertainment from tragedy? How do these cultural preferences affect us as a society and as a country?
For now, I'll leave you with this. It is a six-minute video entitled "Nascar Crashes Compilation." Pay close attention to the music as well as the visuals, though I really hope you do not find it so entertaining as to watch all six minutes. While watching, try to keep in mind that there is a person inside each one of those cars.
This phenomenon is a disturbingly true occurrence in today's society. Looking into the psychological desires that make us want to watch such gruesome stuff is quite difficult to do. It's been around a long time, though, from gladiatorial skirmishes to concussion-causing boxing matches to playing Call of Duty video games today, we love to see people suffer, so long as it's not us. When we're cooped up in our own comfortable homes watching the tube, we feel bad for the people we see wading through 4 feet of murky river water in their family room. Don't get me wrong; people are not heartless jerks. I think that we like to remind ourselves of the positiveness of our current situation, so as to feel better we're not faced with such peril. Also, like Marshall said, people get bored in life, and need something crazy to happen in real time for them to look at and feel moved. It all plays into the story that we tell ourselves, only the story is real life, and that can be disturbing.
ReplyDeleteWhile I certainly agree that a part of this phenomenon whereby people flock to media coverage of disasters is the obsession with death that stems from fear, I think you're missing a large part of the picture; it doesn't necessarily have to be about death. For example, when some story about poverty comes out, the same phenomenon happens. I think it has more to do with people's perceptions of themselves, that is, that they want to believe that they are good people, so these disasters occur, and they convince themselves that because they feel bad, they are good people.
ReplyDeleteMC, This is a terrific post. A thoughtful analysis of important topics -- and here you further the ongoing dialogue. (And a great title, too). 6 min video? empathy for the skittish blog reader!
ReplyDeleteOverall, very good work.