Sensory Overload

It's too easy to be non-caring about 3rd world countries and their plight. It seems it takes effort to actually caIt's too easy to be non-caring about 3rd world countries and their plight. It seems it takes effort to actually care. I don't mean caring on the surface... like knee-jerk reactions to the starving faces of gaunt African children on TV infomercials. That’s natural. I mean, the deeper caring, the inadequacy that comes from feeling you have to do something, and you really want to, as well. That takes effort. It is much more difficult. This partly results from, simply, too much disaster. But it’s not just the disaster in itself, but rather, the unending coverage of them that dulls us.

With the pervasion of media, we can offer instant satellite fields from the battle fields of Iraq, or a report from the eye of the hurricane. In fact, watching the news wasn’t always all about getting a good video clip of the disaster site. It used to be the case that some news stories were only reported on, or were audio only. That seems more and more rare these days. Just think, a split second event in New York was caught by half a dozen video cameras… and if you can think back 4 years… if there had been no video footage, you probably would’ve almost craved it… and as it was, people pored over the available video footage.

Well anyways, I digress (a lot). The point of all this is that unless things are sensational, they don’t evoke an emotional response… and isn’t that sad? I think we really have to experience it first hand… and even then… in Vancouver, passing beggars in the street no longer elicits much more than an apathetic “no thank-you” as if I’m refusing the service of supplying them with a few cents. You never really get used to seeing people in poverty, but it sure gets easier to tolerate as your sensitivity to it gets dulled. I suppose we just have to work at doing what we can and try not to separate ourselves from that all. Which is harder than it looks. How does today’s picture make you feel?re.

I don't mean caring on the surface... knee-jerk reactions to the starving faces of gaunt African children. Those feelings of inadequacy which result from the thought of "well, what can I do"