April 16, 2013
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In the beginning…
In the beginning was the Boston bombing.
And the hashtag #prayforBoston was with the bombing, and the hashtag was the bombing. Through it all statuses were made; without it no status was made that has been made.
And some mentioned the deaths in Afghanistan and Palestine, and decried how unequal the world is, for three dead received far more (online) mournings than hundreds.
And some would say people are entitled to feel differently about different things. It risks appearing hypocritical when you suggest people are not being compassionate enough.
And some may respond it is a kind of hypocrisy to argue for freedom of thought in face of gross injustice. It is just another attempt to occupy a moral high ground.
Ad infinitum.
And in the beginning was the Boston bombing.
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If you feel sorry for the Boston victims, say it. If you feel sorry for Afghan victims, or would like to bring them to people’s attention, say it directly. Feelings are by definition subjective. Attacking others’ feelings do not make yours more convincing or superior. And it is unwise to base attacks on speculations about motives behind others’ compassion.
“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.”
- Matthew 7:1-2
Comments (3)
This reminds me of one of Michael Sandel’s lectures I just watched, which touched on the arguments for and against one’s loyalty to a certain community over another community: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOotE9_OGGs&feature=youtube_gdata_player
@ymat - I like his lectures, though more than rarely I disagree with his points of view. =)
But the set of people who offered condolences on Facebook spans beyond narrowly defined Americans. A potential explanation may go as follows – like us, Americans belong to a first world where things are orderly and predictable, and we feel ‘these things should not happen to *us*’. Iraqis are definitely not part of that ‘us’, and we kind of accepted it is part of life in Iraq.
Then some quoted a piece of news that suggested 30 Afghans were killed in an American bombing during a wedding. Later it was found that it dates back in 2002. That highlights how easily people put their beliefs over facts (which is dangerous), but also the fact that civilian casualties in some parts of the world have become so commonplace that we would not be surprised if there’s one on that exact date.
Are you still in Cambridge?
@splee_hk -
You don’t have to agree with everything Sandel says. 百家爭鳴 should be encouraged.
I’ve also read a lot of self-flagellation (mainly on Facebook) in the aftermath of the bombing. Such posts appear to have a point, but as you pointed out, they seem to be-little (or be suspicious of the motive of) the condolences expressed by people who somehow feel a lot for the Boston bombing. Take myself as an example. I was walking up and down Boylston Street daily for about 5 days in the summer of 2010, when I was in Boston for a conference. I recognise the location where the bombs went off. I have old friends who live in Boston and attended the marathon LAST year. My friends or I could have been there and hurt, had we been “at the wrong place at the wrong time”. Instead of counting ourselves lucky, the emotional attachment to the bombing is more akin to: “It could have been me, my friends, anyone. I can’t bear to imagine how much physical and emotional suffering the atrocity has inflicted.”
Does it mean that by “caring” about the Boston bombing, I turn a blind eye to other atrocities happening around the world? Does this legitimise the (almost) daily suicide bombing in Iraq, or the killing and displacement of civilians in Syria? How about the recent earthquake in Iran and Sichuan in the last 7 days? Yes, the mass media devotes hardly any resources to the “out of sight, out of mind” atrocities, but in this day and age, it’s not difficult to find out what’s going on in other parts of the world, if one really cares and is willing to dig out non-mainstream media reports.
All in all, we need a more “global” awareness of the terrible things happening around us, and this won’t be achieved by attacking/criticising people who mourn the Boston victims.