Whenever I hear of people being killed on a mass scale, I usually feel a little bit sad. But I would by lying if I said that I really did feel tragically upset over it.
This is normal - human beings are not, as a general rule, overcome with sadness every time they hear that someone dies. If we did, we wouldn't be able to function, as someone around the world dies (whether by disease, accident, murder, war, misadventure or old age) every few seconds.
Right now, RIGHT NOW, as I am typing this and you are reading this, kids are dying of starvation in Somalia due to a Famine. Somalian militants are not letting any aid in, because they are paranoid that the aid will be used to "somehow" turn Somalis away from Islam (Personally, I don't see how a sack of corn can influence a person's religion, but apparently it can?). A kid dies of starvation every few seconds in Somalia.
And I agree - it's an awful situation and I hope that the world finds a solution to get aid to these people, who have lived miserably for so many years. But unless you are from Somalia or have friends over there, you cannot honestly say you genuinely feel the emotion of sorrow at every single death. If you did, you would be crying every few seconds and you would have probably left your job to try to volunteer for relief work in Somalia. So unless you are planning to board a plane to Somalia, RIGHT NOW, you only feel philosophical sorrow and sympathy on a general scale. That's not real sadness.
And while I am sympathetic to the Somalian people and while I do recognize the awfulness of the famine, I can't really say that I actually feel an sort of deep sorrow. I feel a bit of pity, and I can intellectually comprehend the vast scale of suffering, but personally, I am going about my day to day life as if it's not happening.
Same thing with the 9/11 attacks - I recognized the awful scale of the atrocity, and I felt sympathetic to the victims and their families. But I didn't weep. I wept like hell when my dog died of cancer - and I cried a lot when my grandmother was hurt badly and suffered a stroke. But when I was watching the TV during the 9/11 attacks, I felt dread in my gut, but I didn't shed a tear.
Right now, there are kids in Bangladesh who are being kidnapped, mutilated and put on the street to collect donations. They literally kidnap kids, as young as 6, cut off their legs or their arms, and they send them to get sympathy donations. Are you crying over that? That story was the first to elicit any sort of strong emotion in me in a long time. I've read history - the history of humanity has some dark, dark, dark chapters in it. After reading about how Crassus (Richest man in the Roman Republic, with the exception of Pompey), crucified thousands upon thousands of slaves after a failed revolt, all in one day, I have to say that I really don't connect emotionally with mass suffering. Because if I did, I wouldn't be able to function. I'd fall apart every single day, because something absolutely horrific happens every single day. Right now, RIGHT NOW, THIS IS HAPPENING: Someone, somewhere is dying because they can't afford chemotherapy. Someone, somewhere, is being forced into prostitution. Someone, somewhere is slowly dying of huntington's disease, unable to remember who they are or their family members, their mind slowly dissolving away from them, bit by bit, each day. Someone, somewhere, is being assaulted because they are tired from their ordeal of forced labour. Someone, somewhere, is dying of an easily preventable disease. Someone, somewhere, has been hit by a car, and is dying in incredible pain. Someone, somewhere, has been told that their kid has HIV. Someone, somewhere has decided to sell their body to fund a drug addiction. Someone, somewhere, is burying their child.
There is so much suffering in this world. And you know what the sad thing is? The thing that has actually caused me to cry? We've never had it better. Even with all this suffering, the present world is better than the old world - some still die from disease, but less do today than before. Some people are still kidnapped or murdered today, but you go back 400 years and it was even easier to kidnap and kill people (no modern forensics or modern police). Wars are being fought today, but wars were just as brutal even 2000 years ago (Again, remember what Crassus did to the Roman Slaves). People are starving to death in the 21st century, but people have always been starving since the beginning of time. Even with the horrendous evils of the 21st century, we have less evil today then in the past.
I'm not a pessimist though. We've made progress. Slavery, while still occurring, has been banned in many nations, effectively. It used to be legal, and endorsed by many governments. Now it is illegal and governments fight it. Polio and Smallpox no longer torment the world, thanks to science. And while people starve to death today, LESS people are starving today than ever before. Hundreds of Millions of Chinese citizens are no longer starving. Racism and Fascism, while still around, are not longer socially acceptable. The Right-Wing extremist attacks in Norway were horrific, but the response of the Norwegians against this racism and extreme nationalism has been heroic. Progress, as painfully, horribly slow as it is, IS POSSIBLE. We might never get to Utopia, and it might take 10,000 years for things to really get better, but progress is possible.
Whenever I hear about something sad on the news, I don't get sad, but I do feel a bit more determined to stand against evil and cruelty. That's the proper response.
As for Amy Winehouse: I don't feel anything. I'm not glad but, unlike the poor Somalian children who I do feel a twinge of regret for, I feel nothing in regards to her. She did this to herself, most likely. She was let out of Rehab, and the very next day she was out drinking. She didn't even TRY to get rid of her addictions. I bet she didn't even want to go to Rehab. No one, NO ONE can be so weak-willed as to resume drinking almost the day after leaving a rehab facility. The only explanation is that she didn't even try to get off alcohol or drugs - I can fathom losing to addiction a few weeks after leaving rehab, but to succumb to addiction ALMOST THE VERY NEXT DAY after leaving? She didn't care. She was one of those people who so arrogantly assume that "I'm fine, there's nothing wrong with Crack or Meth, I'm smarter than everyone else and I can handle it, because I know better". Well, well - looks like she didn't. Should have listened to your doctors Winehouse, instead of ignoring them.
