Tragedies & Heroes
It is amazing how American media always come up with heroes out of tragedies. United 93 passengers were heroes after 9/11, as they possibly crashed the plane away from populated area. A 70-odd year old Israeli Professor is a hero in the Virginia Tech shootout as he supposedly took several bullets for his kids as they jumped out windows. All these seemingly heart-warming heroic acts might be intended to boost the morale of the public from the shock, but to me all these acts are just a hype to embellish the news and promote their own cause. Human nature is to survive and to protect. If normal humans performing these instinctive activities are heroes, then who is not a hero? It is important to give respect to the departed, but don't make a story out of it to sell your product.
14 comments:
I disagree. The media did not portray everyone as heroes. Nor did it hype the actions of certain others. If everyone's act is heroic then no one will be a hero.
We may need to accept the fact that quick actions by certain people, did save lives. If they are not heroes, I am not sure who are!!!
I am not saying the media portrays everybody as heroes - of course they can't and won't. It is in their interest to identify stories that can be told.
An Israeli Jew seems to be the best candidate in this case. And why would that be - oh, maybe the media is run by the Jews! Wow, what a coincidence...
Get the facts straight, first of all he is not a Israeli jew, he is from Romania. Moreover, he is not the only mentioned hero in the whole drama. There are many and are mentioned.
What if he is indeed a hero?
My point is respect the dead, leave them alone and move on. Don't make money out of extravagently fabricated stories. Take a note today - in five years a movie will be made (just like United 93) for millions in profit at the cost of these personal tragedies. Not a single soul involved in the real tragedy will be remembered and Jack nicholson playing the role will win another oscar.
Yeah well said.. Vital things are given less importance!
ponnarasi:
Media today is greedy and relentless. People are shown only the stories the media wants and not the reality behind it.
I agree with Driver on the last part about media. They just want a 'scoop' any time and anything and everything becomes a breaking News (atleast here in India !)I hate these anchor men and women murmuring the news again and again and giving "statistics" (like number of dead in this V Tech shooting case) with hyped passion without any real feeling for the horrific event. Such tragedies never touch them. Worst of all - showing relatives and friends of victims breaking down and trying to get some "reaction" from them - How much more cruel can it become for the sake of money and TRP Ratings
suchu:
appreciate your effort to understand my point.
CNN in USA may be trying to make a buck or two and may eb Jack Nicholas as well, but look at the positive side. It definitely will give the "Courage"to people to come back and "Fight" the fear out of and return to normal life.
Definitely the condolences to the families of the dead. Definitely the criticism to CNN to try and get a reaction.
But what's ahppening in India. Every single day the indian media - in an attempt to copy their counterpart in other countries - shows stuff that is not humane.
The other day Headline news was showing someone who is committing suicide by jumping off of a building, and they PUBLICISED that by saying - "AFTER THE BREAK A BREAKING STORY....".
We should not be spending our times in front of the television, which in some way makes them think that they are PROVIDING us with the STUFF that we want and in the process they tend to think that they are the AUTHORITY to MAKE DECISIONS FOR THE COUNTRY!!!!!!!!!!
Can we bring downt he TRP!! Yes we can!! By not giving importance to such instances in blogs could be a way to go!!
passerby:
I stand by what you say about Indian media as well. I saw the guy jumping off the tank as well on TV and totally condemn this is the sort of news I am against. For that reason, if you start ignoring TV, then you are at loss as you are missing out on information, which is important to be in the "zone".
America's only problem is lack of problems in people's lives there!
driver:
Out of Zone? What will that mean?! I'm sure there are plenty of fantastic channels out there. BBC is one of them (I'm sure they also have a couple of one sided reports, but I'm not in for a debate there).
It is definitely NOT TRUE that we will miss things. And if you call it MISSING - aishwarya rai and abishek bachan's wedding - then I rather miss it.
We "ACCEPT" the choices that are in front of us. India was not like that in the past, one has to "RESEARCH ABOUT PAST" to ACCEPT THIS statement.
Be it medicine, civil engineering, trade, finance... you can keep listing and such a flourish of things happened ONLY because we were NOT READY TO ACCEPT LESS THAN MEDIOCRE things.
That's OUR fault. That's the core reason for why we are like this in India. EXCUSES. And Excuses are the sign of weakness.
This is one of the MAIN WEAKNESSES we have. We are so worried about ourselves we think "OTHERS" dont have problems. -
ORACLE. I THINK EVERYONE LIEVS IN PROBLEMS. I think you have just said what you have said looking things on the surface. Go and ask the families which have lost their love ones in the so called "War against the evil". Go and ask those who have LOST their JOBS because of so called "Cheap Labour" from outside of America. Go and ask people who have lost their loved ones because some crazy guy went out there and shot them. Go and ask the people who get mugged and robbed on gunpoints day in and day out in so called "TOP CITIES" of the world. Look at your crime rates.
There are millions of problems America is also having. But may be on the surface you dont see them. It is NOT my intention to BLAME America. That's not my country and not the country of most of us come into this blog.
But what is important for us Indians is to try to find out the "GOOD THINGS" that are there in our country.
This thread is so related to the "Si, se Puede". We can CHANGE THINGS. IT IS IN OUR HANDS. We dont have to think that we dont have choice. As youngsters, it is upto us to DEMAND the choices.
I'm sure it is easier said than done. May be Banning programmes on the media is NOT the right way. May be it is written down in "EMOTION" but if we just sit back and start thinking "OBJECTIVELY", sit back and NOT BE SATISFIED with the so called IMAGINARY options, I'm sure we can get the quality that we want.
Remember India is not just those few people who live in the cities and have the LUCK to go ABROAD and BLOG. There are MILLIONS of people who DO NOT HAVE THE 6TH SENSE to understand which is right and which is wrong. India can only change when such people are GUIDED in the right way. Someone taking up to terminate their life or terminate the other's life is sadly a BAD EXAMPLE for the millions of farmers who are EXPLOITED and snatched off their property by "MIGHTIER" ANIMALS (Humans of course).
Well the story is never ending. But I'm sure we DO HAVE CHOICES, and if they arent existent then LETS CREATE SOME FOR OUR COUNTRY.
Let's not be like ME - A PASSER BY - I'm sure many of us are like me, just passing by and passing on the comments without really giving a helping hand or indulging oneself.
It is my attempt to get out of the PASSERBY Syndrome that I'm in. May be may of you are in the same syndrome and possibly trying to come out of it. We can.
We had a wonderful movie in Tamil Nadu called - UNNAL MUDIYUM THAMBI
- Si se Puede
passerby:
maybe you shud have your own blog. I am sure it will be inspirational, which is what most of the intended audience lack.
Sorry to have taken up space more than the size of your article. It wasn't intentional. It was just a flow of thoughts.
What I would have liked to see is a continuation of this "THREAD". Many "Initiatives" fail when people start taking "Back seat".
When the topic gets hijacked. I hope that wont happen to something which is a serious evil than many others that prevail today.
Finally,
Blogs are just a way to communicate! Doesnt matter who starts them. This blog is already active and the group is a tight one!
More than starting a blog what is required is some action. We all can do wonders in a very small way, and I beleive that little drops of waer make a mighty ocean.
Your blog is good, and all your and yoru friends blogs are my blogs as well. I hope I can say that!!
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