RE: Our (Secret) Pleasure for Tragedies
Awesome article.
I find myself guilty of these kind of things, but in a different way. I have a monotonous life, and even tho I love it, because I'm working on the things I enjoy most, I like to see different things happening. I like chaos.
I do not enjoy seeing people being hurt or even killed in those kind of tragedies, but I do like to see the chaos they provoke.
For example, a few years ago, on the place I live right now, there was one of the biggest storms I have ever seen. People in their cars had to stop on the street because it was impossible for them to continue, trees fell down and everything looked like the entire world would break.
I was happy about what was happening. I saw chaos, and I saw the world around me getting more and more afraid of the power of the nature. That storm provoked so much chaos, and brought something so new to my life, that I just loved it. I was screaming, internally, that I want to see more, and that I want more chaos, while hoping no one gets hurt.
Maybe I would've not love it so much if someone would've been hurt, but since that didn't happen, for me, that was amazing.
I think every person has a way of seeing tragedies or natural disasters as "good", not because of the people that die, but because of the "new" that the disaster bring to the world. I think that happens because the world is boring, and we're already used to see everything being okay and nice.
I think we like to see disasters because we love seeing new things. I don't think we're actually happy for all the people that die. We just like the "new".
Anyway, thanks for the article and for the recommendation, I will watch Black Mirror as soon as I have some time! :)
Thank you for your perspective. We do have a fascination for chaos and reading your reply I see how it sort of is important for us. We made our world so boring and sistematic that chaos and tragedies provide the spontaneity that lacks in our lives sometimes. And it's funny because at the same time chaos fascinates us because it shakes us a little from our reality, we need to fight against this feeling because we are expected to mourn when it happens and not look like psychos that like to see bad things happening! I believe the media explores it so much exactly because we don't know how to deal with it. Like when a hurricane is approaching. I bet everybody wants to see it gaining power! We love to see the reporter blowing his hair and clothes in the wind. But when the hurricane"surprisingly" starts losing power everybody fakes a "good, good, thank goodness!"