A thought
Between these countries I see two "common denominators" - Lack of fright and lack of sorrow. These are basic feelings that are built into every single human.
If we take Sweden as an example. The people of this country live a "safe" life. We have no earthquakes, violent reoccurring storms like tornadoes and hurricanes, forest fires, tsunami risks, poisonous snakes/spiders or man-eating animals - A non-lethal environment. Most tragedies are personal.
People adopt these personal tragedies and this spreads nation wide - Trough the tabloids. The tragedies become national grief. This feeds the tabloids to gather more - Exploit more.
Take recent murder cases and the tsunami catastrophe. For weeks, months and years these events become headline material. And people buy it! Gorging themselves in something that doesn't really belong to them! And it's not only the humanitarian in them - The compassion - It's the fact that they turn someone else's tragedy into their own portal to feel fright and sorrow. So depraved of their own feelings they apply something that is not theirs.
Note: Feeling compassion and gorging in tabloid headlines are NOT the same thing. Compassion is also a basic feeling that too few know in a pure way in today's society. True compassion that is. Pay your condolences and send good thoughts to the people who need it.
I get tired - So tired. You see it everywhere - People talk about it EVERYWHERE.
Don't get me started on the reason why people buy these paparazzi picture magazines - For instance the witch-hunt on Britney Spears, celebrity cellulite or drug abuse. That is the result of low or even non-existing self-esteem. Oh look at her misery - That makes me feel better.
It's a SICK world we live in and I pay my condolences to the people that live without contact with their own feelings. I feel sorry for you and hope you feel better sometime in life.
/Sara
Det är som ett Münchhausen by proxy-syndrom. Att människor genom att frossa i det hemska får frossa i sina känslor och reaktioner av det hemska. De lever upp genom att göra sig en del av andras olycka, och därigenom kan de uppleva sig leva närmare livet kanske?
Som man själv gör i en kris - som när en person i min närhet dog och jag gick bedövad ut i aprilvåren och fåglarna kvittrade och björkknopparna sprack. Den surrealistiska krocken mellan liv och död som pågår runt omkring oss hela tiden, men vi inte ser förrän den dyker upp precis intill oss.
När den krocken kan komma nära genom tidningarna och vi inte investerat något eget, riktigt - ett barn, en pappa, en fru, en vän, en mormor - kan man "njuta" av enbart kicken i närheten mellan liv och död. Visst kan "vi" känna sorgen över den det gäller, långt borta. Men vi kan stänga av den när vi konsumerat färdigt känslan och återgår till vårt eget.
Så är min flummiga och svårformulerade tanke om det du skriver om.