Thursday, April 19, 2007

I'm tired of the media and the blameocracy


In light of recent events at VA tech, I've discovered that an old hatred of mine for the media and the blameocracy of our culture has resurfaced. I'll explain. Our culture has a fascination with assigning blame during any national crisis, local tragedy, or hot dog eating contest gone awry. We aren't satisfied with a period of mourning and a positive solution designed to promote healing. Instead we immediately attempt to identify those that oversaw the wrong-doers. We have serious concern that a Cho Seung-Hui existed ... but more importantly want to identify all of those that created such a monster. This may include parents, teachers, the police who responded to the crisis, his high school gym teacher, Martha the mail lady, Joey the neighborhood bully and Sparky the 3 legged hamster that had that malignant and devilish plan to die after choking on a peanut one sunday morning when Cho wasn't prepared. We despise the wrong-doer but can't wait to assign blame to others.
And assigne blame we are exceedingly good at as a society. In fact, we've perfected it to such a degree that when the world ends from the invading Martian army (chinese) there will only be two things left standing: cockroaches and lawyers. We whip ourselves up in a national frenzy hunting all those that can be litigated to death as we find it so difficult as a society to forgive the tragedy and find a more positive solution to these problems... or worse, agree that in some instances there is noone to blame.
Now I'm not suggesting that there were not indicators during the VA tech massacre that could have led to a more prompt response, a better safeguarding of the rest of the student population, or even earlier prevention. But I use this situation as an example of the greater psychological ills of our society and its somewhat confused and misdirected ability to seek closure.
Therefore, I advocate focusing on problems that DO have solutions and don't require assigning blame. I speak of such terrible plagues as the plight of hungry fat chicks and their terrible thirst for semen. And for those out there who hate to point fingers but would rather confront problems head on with both feet planted squarely shoulder-width apart, I've got a plan. Who's with me?

1 comment:

D.A.F. said...

http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2007/04/20/Columns/Put-Grief.On.The.Front.Page-2871376.shtml

A geriatrics physician at Duke with a similar viewpoint.