I just turned my television off, because there is no point in watching anymore. The television was covering the tragic crash of Flight 3407 outside Buffalo New York. My heart and prayers go out to all the families, to the victims, and to the community. The crash is especially difficult for the public mind, in light of the miraculous landing in the Hudson a few weeks ago of another flight, for which the pilots and crew have been much celebrated.
I learned of this new plane crash this morning, when I turned on my morning dose of news to hold me over until Rachel Maddow comes on this evening. It brought back to me the memory of those days after September 11th, 2001, when I was glued to my television for about four days straight. I still have some of the VHS tapes I carefully recorded on that day, having no idea why. I have never watched them, but they sit like a silent memorial to that moment on a shelf in my living room. They are not even labeled, but I know what they are. Perhaps it was the news report that a 9-11 widow is one of the victims of this crash that took me back to the memory of those fall days.
Why is it that we watch such tragedy, like voyeurs? Why is it that the best ratings that television news gets is when something goes horribly wrong? It goes beyond the need for information… I learned all I needed to know in the first ten minutes, and yet I have watched for over an hour. It took a conscious decision to pull myself away from watching this tragedy unfold on my personal little black box.
My reaction can’t be uncommon, or such events would not represent a ratings bonanza for such news channels. Be it a plane crash or the abduction of a child, what is it that rests behind the human fascination with tragedy? Sure, the Greek tragic epics and the Shakespearian tragedies are some of the most popular pieces of dramatic performance in history, but now we get the real thing. It is now as if we get a birds-eye view of the sacking of Troy, instead of 20 people on a stage with wooden swords and our imagination.
A friend of mine said to me a few years ago that there was so much more violence and tragedy in the world now than there used to be. My first reaction was “true”, but is it? Is there more tragedy and violence in the world, or does it merely seem that way because 24 hour news channels bring it to us live and in person, around the world, all the time? A car chase in Los Angeles, a shootout in Fayetteville NC, a terrorist strike in Mumbai, a cyclone in Japan, and a bombing in Baghdad… all brought to you live and in person, with interviews with the victims and endless talking head commentary and cycles of replayed footage.
Occasionally that same system of 24 hour news brings us some moments of heroism and the occasional inspiring and uplifting story… like the crew that settled their plane down on the Hudson river in New York. But even this can become a source of tragedy. In a horrific statement this morning, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said “Unfortunately God was not with this plane like he was with the one that landed in the Hudson” or something to that effect. Thank you Mayor Bloomberg for traumatizing the families of this crash once again, by implying that God could have chosen to save them, but did not. Jerk. Leave the theology to others, please.
For me, it has an added dimension. I have spent years of my life studying violence, warfare, and tragedy… first as an intelligence analyst focusing on Latin America and then the Balkans, and then as a history and political science major focusing on Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, Medieval Europe, and Colonial Latin America. So much of history is the study of violence and tragedy. So much of political science is seeking to understand violence and tragedy. It is neither in my nature nor my training to turn off that television.
But I have… because to watch endlessly is pointless. If there is anything else that I need to know, I will learn it in the days to come, through articles and reports. I have learned about it and I have prayed for the victims and their families. I have felt grateful to the first responders, and I have remembered again how sacred life is. I have faced again the fear of living in an uncertain and dangerous world, in which what is sacred is also fragile.
To continue watching is a form of tragic voyeurism.
Yours in Faith,
David