|
Not Dumb Luck
by jayarrigo
I just re-read the newslog for Sept. 12, 2004.
The subject of the original post was on dumb luck. But a comment afterward asked, basically, why "only the good die young?"
It all comes down to perspective.
People see the world through through different lenses. The lens of the US-as-international-bully. The lens of Islam-as-evil. The lens of right, left, center, anarchist, fascist, communist. Depending on who's POV one is coming from any of these could be The Lens of Good and Right.
But here's the kicker. There is no cosmic justice for why the homecoming queen dies. There's no cover up in the media about the bad things in her life. The person with wife and kids gets blown up and the news reports it in a way so that people will care. There is a bias to the news. Left, right it doesn't matter. When a kid dies, they report it as tragic. Others on the other hand don't get the same treatment.
The headline on dailyrotten.com today was that India's Most Wanted was shot to death by a special Task Force. It was reported in a way that said "This was a bad man and we got him. It was a good thing that we got him." Veerappan was most definitely seen as a hero/rogue by some.
News reports push things through the lens of pay-attention-to-this-story. We seem to enjoy the burning buildings and tragic dead quarterback-Eagle-Scouts. If we had some perspective about what is going on in the world writ large and what we are doing to our own bodies, these deaths would end up like all the others...
And here is my point: Billy Joel was only telling half the truth. It's true that "only the good die young." The rest? No one really cares or wants to care about them.
The rest just die.
|
