Society of martyrdom.

If this craziness in Virginia jumped off two weeks ago, I think Imus would still have a job.

This week (and for the next two weeks probably) we will be treated to a litany of images and stories about what happened in Virginia. About how tough it is for the students to deal with, the meaning behind it all, the influence our society as a whole has in incidents like this occurring and of course trying to discern what could have been done to prevent it.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s f**ked up, no doubt. Some kid goes off and winds up shooting a slew of people, it’s not something that happens every day (thankfully).

However, it’s not the first time something like this has happened and I have to say I have the feeling it won’t be the last. What I find unsettling more than anything though is how we are becoming a nation of reaction rather than action. How our focus turns inward rather than outward - wallowing in the drama of something doesn’t seem to me like a way to heal, it seems more like a way to perpetuate the drama of an event and to make it more than it is.

I couldn’t turn the dial on the radio or flip a channel on the TV without mention of this thing. If it was a reference to it, certainly that wouldn’t be as much of a problem but, today (unlike let’s say 20 years ago) we have nonstop coverage on competing channels.

I’ve got a lot more to say about the Imus thing but, ask yourself this: last week all the news channels we’re talking about the incredible scarring of the athletes of the Rutgers women’s basketball team over the words uttered by a 66 year-old, white man who had little or no impact on those women’s day to day lives.

I mean, it was EVERYWHERE!

Doesn’t all of that drama seem somewhat hollow in the light of yesterday’s events? How do the events of yesterday even compare to the other tragedies happening each and every day? If car bombs in Iraq blow up and kill over 60 people, why aren’t we trying to figure out the meanings behind that tragedy? Are those lives less worthy of our attention? How come those deaths don’t warrant their very own special graphic tag on all the networks or the incessant coverage that follows such an event?

I just get this sense of Bread and Circuses and I can’t say I attribute it to a specific political party or individual as much as something which is overtaking our society at our peril.