AS, 9/12

I have a lovely Swedish couple staying with me right now. I fixed them a dinner of salmon and cous cous with which they tried their first American beer. We discussed mini golf, feeble gun laws, Eva Longoria, and flamingos. Oh, and the American Civil War. The nice Swedish guy told his girlfriend that she should watch North and South to understand what we were talking about. North and South, staring Patrick Swayze. This mini-series is his primary point of reference for American history. I really can’t complain, when I think of Sweden I think of Swedish meatballs. Anyway, on to my point.

Lyotard’s notion of the sublime, that we derive pleasure in pain and that we have become desensitized, really struck a cord with me. We are so deadened by images meant to entertain that when real tragedy strikes we don’t know how to feel about it. Take Katrina. Devastation, bodies lying in the streets, public outrage, and while that outrage was alive, it was potent. In two months it was mostly gone. Faded away into routine, faded away into contentment with a monetary donation to Red Cross, faded away while a city lay in ruins and her people left scattered to the winds. As a culture, we have lost our innate emotional compass. Entertainment has taken the place of community. Theaters are packed with strangers wanting to see more and more extreme gore. They want to FEEL terrified. In the dark, surrounded by people, comforted by anonymity, audiences crave any emotion stronger than apathy. Terror is the easiest emotion to feel. There is titillation in horrible happenings, especially when those happenings happen to someone else. Culture of fear – yes, fear is spoon fed to us nightly by the “Satanical local news,” but it is also something we seek with eyes wide open.

There was an article about how to survive a disaster. Actually, there was a series of articles highlighting survival strategies for a particular disaster from nuclear war to the Avian flu. The whole concept involved the inevitable fact that there will be survivors in any given disaster. There will be those left to grieve and pick up the pieces. And no matter what you might think now, you will want to be one of those who live. So, be scared and be prepared because an end is f-ing likely. All the experts say so. Experts on the end of the world scenarios -- priceless. I didn’t want to read it; I didn’t want to wallow in fear. I just couldn’t help myself. The greatest parts were the list of tools to stock up on, among them a radiation detector, and for the super rich (or super paranoid) a radiation shielding vest. Wow, fear is the American way of life. We jones on it. Who needs drugs when we get the hit every time we turn on the news or rent the newest slasher flick? Meanwhile we’ll tidily stock our house with non-perishables and dig out our bomb shelters with a nasty edge of excitement added to the mix.