A Deficiency of Compassion
During the autumn of 2003, I was getting to know a hippy girl down in Hippy Central, mainly over the Internet. We wound up meeting for one date, that went fairly well, but seeing as how Hippy Central is a bit of a drive, and I can scarcely find time to make it across College City sometimes, it was pretty much doomed to failure.
The reason I bring that whole episode up is that one of the things she really hit the nail on the head about when we were getting to know each other over E-Mail and Instant Messenger. She asked me where compassion fit into my life, because she felt as if she was unable to detect any of it. I don't have much compassion, for myself or for most others, except under special circumstances.
Why am I mentioning this? Simple: I don't cover some instances of "news" because I honestly don't care. The best example of this is the girl who disappeared in Aruba a month ago. She's a reasonably attractive honor student... Who went to Aruba to get piss steaming drunk as a senior trip from high school. Sorry, big news media. Not interested.
Paul Van der Sloot? Joran van der Sloot? Aruban investigators not following American-style justice procedures? I absolutely don't care. All of the news time that's been wasted on this party girl is time that could have been devoted to the Azeri military buildup that's fueled by high oil prices. It's time that could be devoted to investigating Indonesia's counter-productive legal stance on terrorism. It's time that could be devoted to how much ass American forces are kicking lately in Afghanistan and Iraq. Have I seen any coverage of last week's extremely successful Afghan campaign? Nope, but I know that some party boat DJ got arrested because he's friends with one of the Aruban suspects.
Maybe I'm cold-hearted; maybe I'm an uncaring jerk; but some party girl disappearing in Aruba isn't news, and I've been ready to move on for four weeks now. Maybe the news agencies are trying to get enough coverage to cover their expense at sending news crews down to the island, but as far as I'm concerned, they can do it on their own time.
Thus Saith the Fly.
The reason I bring that whole episode up is that one of the things she really hit the nail on the head about when we were getting to know each other over E-Mail and Instant Messenger. She asked me where compassion fit into my life, because she felt as if she was unable to detect any of it. I don't have much compassion, for myself or for most others, except under special circumstances.
Why am I mentioning this? Simple: I don't cover some instances of "news" because I honestly don't care. The best example of this is the girl who disappeared in Aruba a month ago. She's a reasonably attractive honor student... Who went to Aruba to get piss steaming drunk as a senior trip from high school. Sorry, big news media. Not interested.
Paul Van der Sloot? Joran van der Sloot? Aruban investigators not following American-style justice procedures? I absolutely don't care. All of the news time that's been wasted on this party girl is time that could have been devoted to the Azeri military buildup that's fueled by high oil prices. It's time that could be devoted to investigating Indonesia's counter-productive legal stance on terrorism. It's time that could be devoted to how much ass American forces are kicking lately in Afghanistan and Iraq. Have I seen any coverage of last week's extremely successful Afghan campaign? Nope, but I know that some party boat DJ got arrested because he's friends with one of the Aruban suspects.
Maybe I'm cold-hearted; maybe I'm an uncaring jerk; but some party girl disappearing in Aruba isn't news, and I've been ready to move on for four weeks now. Maybe the news agencies are trying to get enough coverage to cover their expense at sending news crews down to the island, but as far as I'm concerned, they can do it on their own time.
Thus Saith the Fly.
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