Too much information

[andy-hughes]

In tandem with AOG's Question about the appropriateness of showing the pictures of Ghadaffi in all the national papers, India Knight made a similar point, using the example of that poor tot who was run over in China and left lying in the road.

As she points out - what sort of thinking is behind watching such footage? Who thinks "Hmm, a child run over and left dying in the road, I'd like to see that!"

I admit I have not sought out the footage - but who has, and why?

Anyone want to explain why they brought up the U-Tube clip - or offer an explanation about how we are progressing as a society if we use the miracle of mass communication to spread images like this among oursleves?

[rowanwitch]

I couldn't watch it...hearing about it is sad enough... along with all the other stories we are bombarded with

[AB Editor]

Morning Andy,

Morbid curiosity I imagine? The question people want answered when they look for this clip is "Did it really happen?"

It's not a desire to see something horrendous, it's to see if other human being are capable of what we fear they are capable of.

I think the Ghadaffi viewings are important for a not dissimilar reason.

Good question to kick the week off with.

[andy-hughes]

If you happen to drive past a car crash, the instinct is to slow down and look - but we are taking a specific series of premeditated actions here - you need to go to your PC, power up UTube, find the link, click on it, and watch.

Why?

[AB Editor]

"People can't look away, it's like a car crash."

+1

[AB Editor]

"you need to go to your PC, power up UTube, find the link, click on it, and watch"

Or pull your phone out of your pocket and type in 3 words?

It sounds like you have a healthier relationship with technology than I do.

[rowanwitch]

A car crash is different...if Emergency services are not in attendance I'd stop in case I could help... if they are.. the best thing is not to add to the problem get past asap.. I don't have a morbid curiosity I know what mangled humans look like...seen them for real and close up...

[NOX]

I haven't personally seen it, I avoided it on purpose but a couple of people I know ( all decent, kind, upright human beings) have and called me to ask if I saw it. The general feeling I got from the call is they wanted someone to share their outrage with, as though they were reaffriming that their values were still the norm and that we hadn't slid overnight into total moral anarchy. No-one WANTS to see a small child callously run over, but there is a sense amongst people who decied to watch it that they did so not out of any voyeuristic sadism but simply to see if it was true and secondly to spread the word about how horrible it was. Is that not how we teach one another appropriate behaviour, is that not why we constantly show and re show clips of the holocaust, to show our outrage and to reaffirm it's something totally unacceptable? I don't see the two as being different tbh.

[rowanwitch]

sad though it is it is one child...we get outraged more easily for an individual rather than a human disaster. A child...we have aframe of reference for....a thousand children... in the west...I don't think we quite get our heads round it

[DrFilth]

no one is forced to watch this video clip, do we want more censorship in this country or less

andy who would you like to have choose what you are told or able to see

[Sqad]

Immunisation.....if you lived in an underdeveloped country where food resources and famine were scarce, then you would (your brain) become immune to the scenes that you see......dead bodies, dead cats, children dying etc.
It would be "business as usual", bur we in the Western world are still susceptible to such scenes and it affects our sense of dignity, up bringing, decency, whatever one would like to call it.

Our "immunity" to such things does improve due to age and repetition and i must admit, that seeing starving children., dead bodies, flooding rape and pestilence which at one time would disturb me, leaves my now......unmoved.

Immunisation.

[Ankou]

i think it is a sort of detachment reality bought about by cgi films and computer gaming, photoshop, airbrushing, video editing/special effects etc etc. a sort of desentisation based on being subjected to long periods of fakery.

as said by ab ed above, people might go and look for it as a reality check - "did it really happen? i need to see it to believe it".

[rowanwitch]

I agree sqad... I hear of these things and can acknowledge it is sad... but now reserve anger and outrage for areas where I can actually do something to effect change

[DrFilth]

seeing united get beat 6-1 was a big shock to the system think some are still in bed recovering

[rowanwitch]

And some willl be seeing that as so much more important...... personal rather than second hand pain

[Ankou]

although, having said that, its not really new. look at the popularity of gladiatorial fights or death/executions generally throughout the ages. the phrase 'knitting by the guillotine' often apperas on ab, as does the constant garish desire to have people hanged for their crimes.

aristotle said we "enjoy contemplating the most precise images of things whose sight is painful to us".

[tamborine]

Media foist images on us.

Gadaffi pained people and its cathartic for them; bit like shooting a rabid dog.

[DrFilth]

in andy's world would that result go out on the airwaves ?

[Ankou]

"in andy's world would that result go out on the airwaves ?"

i'm not sure andy is advocating a blanket ban, just asking what the appeal is.