=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= = F.U.C.K. - Fucked Up College Kids - Born Jan. 24th, 1993 - F.U.C.K. = =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= "Can Apathy Die? (or "Earning your BS in BS") ---------------------------------------------- ************* ************* Above is my attempt at a text-based moment of silence for the stupid, needless, and tragic loss of Princess Diana. When I first heard the news about this, I was struck with disbelief and grief. As the reports continued, this was replaced by sadness and sympathy. Now, after almost a week of media throughput, I'm to the point of barely caring if she's been buried or not. Before folks start flaming be back to snail-mail, I want to preface this by saying that my first reactions are still the most honest and sincere. I still view this as a tragic loss. Nonetheless, I've had my sympathies systematically replaced with apathy by the relentless coverage. If it helps, think about it this way for a moment: If a bird flies into the glass of your bedroom window, you would likely go "Oh, that's so sad!" The next time it happened, you may still feel bad for the poor creature. Now what if 10 birds a day started smacking into every window of your house for two weeks straight? Wouldn't your original sympathies be replaced by "Stupid @(*$^# birds...." A perfect example is when I moved to Colorado. When I got here, it was unfortunately at the same time as two locally beloved polar bears - both raised from cubs here at the local zoo - were being shipped away. For the entire first MONTH I was here, this was the extent of the news on EVERY single channel. By the time they left, I thought the evening news would go off the air for lack of stories to report on. Here's how it got even worse: A few months later, two more cubs were born at the local zoo. A few days or so later, one of them happened to die. Not only did it die, but the mother actually ate the young afterwards. Not only did she eat it, they actually had footage of this. I was still so jaded from the previous set of bears, the only emotion I could find within me about this was a twinge of sadness they didn't show that footage more often.... THAT'S what's happened to my emotional threshold thanks to the media. Does anyone find this happening faster than ever before? I mean, it's not like there are MORE sad and tragic things happening in the world today. I have come to worry that my own personal jadedness and cynicism is being tempered all the further by the increase in media coverage. If you're even remotely as cynical about things as I am, you know the fact it's worsening is FAR from healthy. In the past 2-3 years, how many of these events can we count with little need for recall? OJ, Jon Benet, OK City, Anthony Kunanan, et al; and that's without any real effort. Think back not so far - perhaps only ten years ago. Now how many can you think of? The Pan-Am crash in Scotland, the Gulf War, the Challenger disaster....I'm running dry already. Even if these events carried the same degree of emotional impact and media coverage, it says something else sad and pathetic altogether that they have faded so fast from memory. I don't want to get off on an already well-beaten tangent about the abuse and almost surreal proliferation of the media. Exempting some of my existing criticisms about the media, I'm still reasonably happy with network news and CNN. What I find unfathomable is the amount of the tabloid media shows, such as "A Current Affair" and "Hard Copy", that report on nothing other than the "sensational" stories. The reason I don't want to get off on a tangent about this is because we are all readily aware of this fact. Most of us even complain about how bad it's gotten. "Why don't they let it go?" "Can't they give it up? I'm SO sick of hearing about this!" While this doesn't apply to all, I'd like to answer this question for the majority of the armchair media critics out there. You know why there is SO much coverage for SO long? Because, stupid, YOU STILL WATCH IT! I can safely say that this applies to most people because of a little something called the Neilson ratings. Yes, that's right, we actually have a running tally of you @$#&! MORONS that keep watching this crap you complain so much about. Why am I sure there are so many? Because if there weren't so many, they wouldn't show it! I only took a few classes in media, but it's real simple folks: TV is based on ratings. Why did shows like "Cop Rock" and "The George Carlin Show" get dropped so fast. NO RATINGS. No one watched them. So, if none of you - or even few less of you - weren't watching all the endless coverage, it wouldn't be on. I finally came to a conclusion why this is. Some people, either through education or study, are considered experts about planes, birds, antique tables, and even ancient Mongolian side-dishes. These are the people who can hold attention at a party with their intricate knowledge; the ones who testify at trials with key pieces of information to offer; the ones who educate us with documentaries on A&E or Discovery; and those that are the only "qualified" individuals to write volumes on their particular area of knowledge. What about your average couch-monkey? What about that poor sap that felt more in touch with Archie Bunker than his own dad? What about that lifeless, media-entranced moron that actually dog-ears pages of the TV Guide lest they forget particularly significant episodes on Fox? What do they have to offer to conversation, let alone to the social collective? Well, they can be ed-u-cated about OJ. Yup. This is the only thing I can think of. The only reason you can get away with a trial like that being on tv everyday, recapped on the news every night, and still have the cumulative ratings to stay on the air. There are enough of you shmucks out there that need to know EVERYTHING about some murder, some trail, or some tragedy, that you will catch every snippet of info or detail fed to you. This has to be it, or the @!&%# books ABOUT everything on tv wouldn't do so well. I'm sure if they had a trail about the trial, we'd have a'plenty of expert testimony. When was the last time you met an educated, successful person who talked at length about what the gardener for the Ramsey's had to say on "Dateline"? Face it: If you have even half of the information about a sensational story from the past two years, I'll bet dime-to-dollar you have nothing else but a head full of "Jeopardy" trivia as an educational background. For those that turn off their tv when these stories are on, bravo. Even if you're just watching part two of the "Brady Bunch" when they're in the Grand Canyon, kudos for at least not supporting sensational media. For those that still actually honestly grieve at the tragedies in the world, my infinite respect for you - and somewhere within me, I grieve with you. As for the rest of you, I'm short on witticisms and analogies, and lord knows they'd be wasted on you anyway. Instead, I'll try to put in a context you can understand: If you chimps actually were monkeys, you'd still only have enough of a brain to throw your own feces at yourselves.... - capone =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= = Questions, Comments, Bitches, Ideas, Rants, Death Threats, Submissions = = Mail: jericho@dimensional.com (Mail is welcomed) = =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= = To receive new issues through mail, mail jericho@dimensional.com with = = "subscribe fuck". 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