Two horrible news stories competed for my attention yesterday -- soul-crushing, hideous, gory news stories in which the actual "newsworthiness" to me was debatable.
In the first, a man was pushed to his death in front of a New York City subway train (the train line I use, just for an added fillip of dread). According to an MTA public service poster I noticed coincidentally the same day I later found out about the death, about 40+ people died from being struck by subway trains last year. But what made this particular item of such visceral impact is the way our humor paper, The New York Post, reported the story on its front page:
The altercation that proceeded this poor man's fall onto the tracks was also filmed by one type of mobile device or another -- the important thing is, it was recorded. Recorded, another trifle on the iPhones and tablets and other gadgets. As I've pointed out in a previous post on a knife-wielding man who was shot in Times Square, the citizenry always are sure to record such anomalous events and tragedies on their devices, watch through lenses and screens at the gory drama about to unfold.
Then the Media covers the event, replicates and magnifies certain images for mass consumption. But the NYP cover is probably one of the most blood-curdling, "bread and circuses" tableau I've ever seen.
What is the accumulated mental impact on the populace as the result of being exposed to such horrors?
The second, barely "news" story was a segment on the show "Hoarders," about essentially the Ed Gein of cat hoarders. Cat owners, I will spare you the details, but it was the most disgusting, soul-ripping situation you can possibly imagine. This, coupled with an obviously deeply emotionally ill woman crying, cradling a mummified cat/cat-head in her arms and admitting she has lost all control.
If there is any real news about these two stories, it's about the inadequate mental health services provided to people in this country -- meager resources that are constantly in danger of being cut from governmental budgets. But you'll never see such items framed in such a way. That would be boring.
I write this in the context of a horrible nightmare I had last night. It started with a man, possibly a veteran, returning from war. He looks at all the giant ads and billboards surrounding him, and the symbolism really disturbs him -- triggers off deep post-traumatic stress issues. These are ads and signs not just containing violent imagery, but just deep, symbolic stuff that creates a sense of vertigo and cognitive dissonance.
As the dream continues, the man turns to me and tells me that I am the only one who can unlock the mystery of what has happened to men like him -- people who have been purposely fucked-up and mentally destroyed in these sorts of "experiments." These experiments involve the use of repeated imagery and sound -- I suppose MK-Ultra type stuff. He says the answers are "locked in his head," though there are books and other notes around the room I might be able to get more information from.
Then the scene switches to a room full of people -- regular people you'd find anywhere. A tone is played, and a certain light is flashed, and these people turn on each other, trying to kill each other with their bare hands and anything they find in the room. They become like complete animals. It's like something out of "The Manchurian Candidate," but with regular people not soldiers, and far more brutal.
Which reminds me of "The Walking Dead," and of this recent news story of a man who shot his girlfriend in the back with a rifle over an argument regarding the show. The substance of the argument? The suspect was convinced that a zombie-apocalypse type scenario might happen:
"...he felt very adamant that there could be some type of military mishap that would result in some sort of virus or something being released that could cause terrible things to happen."
I'm going to wind this all up with mentioning once again the "Summer of Shootings" that just passed, starting with the "Dark Knight" one in Aurora and quickly escalating to almost one a week. After a while, we still got those shooting stories...but they weren't big news anymore, barely a Twitter Trend.
Bored again. What will be the new Hotness? The Royal Messiahs? Junk Food Shortages?
Anyway, I also write a blog on Wellness, and really try to focus on strategies to shield oneself -- or at least purge the toxins -- from being exposed to all this. I don't believe in being sheltered. But we need the critical thinking ability to put what we see in context. And we need to Consume Content Consciously.
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