F0ul_Olli |
09-06-2005 09:07 AM |
This is more than a question of empathy and who does it better.
You see one disaster on TV, you've seen them all. TV has a great ability to reduce the scale down to bite size chunks with adverts between them.
TV also shows us how different people around the world express pain and loss. It doesn't however express the actual feeling of pure hoplessness that realising that your world will never be the same again. Some people are aware of this feeling and can empathise with those who suffer, however, many people have luckly never been there, and so the extent of their empathy is going to be limited.
We all deal with these kinds of issues in our own way, and a lot of it is cultural. As a very basic divider, people with a northern European background keep their feelings to themselves, others from warmer climates express it in a much more expressive way.
I feel for the people who have lost everything, but there is nothing I can do, so there is no point me becoming a hysterical sobber just to ease my guilt that I am ok or to show others that I care!
The point is that we all, feel for the victims of such disasters - its just that some of us cannot be as aware of the outcomes of these things because we don't have enough experiance. It shouldn't be seen as a weakness of others, just an indication that sudden loss isn't as common now as it used to be - which I guess is a good thing.
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