The film 2012 brought us visions of a number of natural disasters which triggered a domino effect until they wiped out the whole world as we know it.
On Friday, life imitated fiction as we watched the tsunami wiping out entire villages in Japan after a massive earthquake. The huge waves turned into a swirling brown mass of debris which carried away everything in its path and the whole thing was captured by dramatic aerial footage. Cars and homes looked like Monopoly figures as they were swept up, flicked over and demolished; people trying in vain to outrun the moving torrents of water were mere insignificant specks. The tsunami waves travelled across the ocean and various countries braced themselves for the full onslaught of the impact, which thankfully never came. As I write, however, there are fears of a radiation leak from the Fukushima nuclear reactor.
On the other side of the world, we watch on our TV screens as the Libyan rebels are being squashed by Gaddafi’s army. Saif al Islam Gaddafi, coolly and dispassionately tells the world that the government will never surrender. With his detached arrogance and his emotionless delivery, I find his words scarier than the shouting and mad ramblings of his father. But even as we still have one eye on Libya, it is clear that the devastation in the Pacific has already pushed that story off the front pages as it slips into second place in many people’s consciousness.
Unfortunately, public opinion is fickle and restless…when a crisis is not resolved within a week or so we become bored and impatient. This is the Facebook and Twitter generation which is always looking for the next hot topic; preferably a story which can be reduced to 140 characters or less. The new media has an immediacy which is breathtaking – we click ‘like’ and we ‘share’ and we post links to breaking stories as they happen. We have never been so switched on, so tuned in and so online as we are today, and yet this deluge of constant news carries the risk of creating the opposite effect as we start suffering from information overload.
I can completely understand how being constantly bombarded with all this bad news can become overwhelming after a while for the average person. The inclination, after a while, is to simply not want to know. Yes, that sounds harsh, but sometimes the magnitude of disasters such as the Japan earthquake and the knowledge that innocent people are dying in Libya because no one wants to directly intervene, becomes too much to absorb. The feelings of helplessness and hopelessness over-ride our initial compassion. We might sign petitions and donate money to salve our conscience, reassuring ourselves that at least we ‘did something’, but then we have no choice but to turn inwards again and concentrate on the more tangible problems in our own lives. These, to a certain extent, are within our control.
A keyboard opinion
Over the last few weeks as I’ve read all the online comments from the public exhorting the Prime Minister on what he should or should not do regarding Libya, my initial thought was that ‘everyone has suddenly become a self-styled expert on Libya and diplomacy’.
But then it occurred to me that this too was a way for people to feel that they were ‘doing something’ – by engaging in a cyber discussion where they could vent their fears and frustrations. It won’t get them anywhere, they are hardly going to influence world affairs and yet this input makes them feel slightly better. A keyboard and an Internet connection has made it possible for everyone to express an opinion – whether it is coherent or not, badly spelled or not, whether it is a hodgepodge of Maltese-English or an approximation of both. Out of all the possible places to post your views, Facebook represents the ultimate democratic tool because no one is editing or moderating what you write or arbitrarily deciding not to upload your comment. Your opinion pops up immediately and people who comment cannot hide behind anonymity.
And it is also through Facebook that one realises how fluid and transient public opinion is, and how easily it moves on from a news item, no matter its magnitude.
Charlie has lost his sheen
Which brings me to the rapidly disintegrating life of actor Charlie Sheen, now fired from his hit show, and who has become the butt of jokes: “How much cocaine did Charlie Sheen take? Enough to kill Two and a Half Men.”
It’s no laughing matter of course, but the media obsession with Sheen is also an example of how public opinion can momentarily focus on such calamities as Japan and Libya, and yet can just as easily flit over to give equal attention to the self-inflicted calamity of one man who happens to be famous.
Suffice to say that on the same day Saif Gaddafi gave his first interview to Sky News, over on CNN Charlie Sheen was being interviewed by Piers Morgan. The two have a lot in common in that they both feel their money gives them the power to treat others as disposable objects. Both have reached the sort of notoriety which makes them feel they are invincible and both seem to be cut off from reality.
The morbid fascination with Sheen is also a reflection on a society which almost applauds bad boy behaviour. The man is obviously going to self-destruct and yet entertainment channels and gossip magazines can’t get enough of his antics. There was even a link going round to a very malicious article proclaiming him dead from an overdose. He has become an awful sad parody of his own character from his once successful show.
In the light of the real tragedies which are happening because of natural disasters and civil war and the countless lives being lost, it seems banal to be focusing on one person who seemed to have it all, and yet is determined to throw it all away. And yet, that is the absurd, tragic nature of the human condition and the paradox which is to be found in today’s media.
One minute it is showing us people dying in earthquakes, tsunamis and revolutions, and the next we are watching an entertainer slowly killing himself with drugs as the cameras roll.
[email protected]