Vicarious

It’s an unfortunate fact about the media: one of the easiest routes to fame for a frustrated and generally talent-less hack comes in the form of a bullet. It worked for Charles Whitman, for Nathan Gale, and it apparently “worked” for Cho Seung-Hui.

All this instant stardom demands, of course, is martyrdom.

Let me be clear: this fame is worthless, the act atrocious, most of all, because of its emptiness. There is no sainthood to be found here, on any level.

The only people who win out for all the senseless suffering are the ad sponsors, and that is only, as they say, the price of doing business.

I was sitting at an airport, preparing for my flight from Phoenix back to Philadelphia, (more about this trip in upcoming articles), when I saw people clustering around the television sets. Sure enough, the bullets had barely stopped flying, and the pundits were all weighing in.

Everything that makes this story “news” could’ve been told in 40 seconds, but you better believe they’ll squeeze an entire news cycle out of it. Maybe two. Maybe ten. The psychologists were giving the same vapid runaround they always give when these things happen, as were the pro and anti-gun lobbyists, and everyone else who could find a way to hawk their way onto CNN for a discussion on this momentous occasion. Then will come the toothless discussions about gun law reform, which of course will never actually materialize.

Mind you, it’s not out of indifference to the suffering of the victims or their families that I say this. In fact, out of deference to them, one would expect more tact, more taste.

Suddenly everyone wants to read this morons horrible plays or his diatribes to the media before he went and shot some more people. These plays are not going to “shed more light.” They were bad before he shot a bunch of people, and they’re still bad. No amount of asking “why did he do it?” is going provide an answer that heals any wounds, or provides any reparations. Nor will a suicide note, or a treatise the length of Moby Dick.

32 people are dead. When anyone is struck down in the prime of life, it is a tragedy. However, how many homicides Nation-wide last week? You want to talk about gun control, or about violence in our society, why is one
lone gunman the talking point?

Finally, once again, let’s be real.
Congress isn’t going to budge on that issue. The media is just making a fuss
so they have more attention to draw to their sponsors during the commercial breaks. They’re talking because it gives something to talk about. This is an attention economy, and if what pulls our attention is blood, then that’s what they’ll use. This is nothing new: it worked quite well in Rome, after all.

So, CNN. NBC. CBS. Fuck the shut up already.

On that note, I will kindly do the same.

By James Curcio.

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