QCQ #1 (Quotations by William Hazlett)
“ ‘Why do we always read the accounts in the newspapers of dreadful fires and shocking murders?’ Because, he answers, ‘love of mischief, love of cruelty, is as natural to human beings as is sympathy”. Pg. 97 – 98
I think this snippet from the reading not only relates to media culture today, but also shows how humans process and relate to suffering. First off, he begins speaking about how we are drawn as people to view the more dreadful and violent murders, accidents, or tragedies when browsing the news. I feel that this is absolutely true, and it is often even exploited by media outlets. We are drawn to these topics out of curiosity, and news outlets have catered to this by looking for the most gruesome stories to garner attention. Like I said in a previous QCQ, there is usually not much happy news in my opinion besides maybe a break for the viewer to breathe, and these darker stories do catch our attention and keep us glued to the screen effectively. This is because (the author goes to say) we process tragedy and cruelty just as effectively as we process sympathy, making it easy to do so. My question is as follows: If we process sympathy much like cruelty, why are these darker explicit news stories more interesting to us?
QCQ #2
“Flooded with images of the sort that once used to shock and arouse indignation, we are losing our capacity to react. Compassion , stretched to its limits, is going numb”.
This is an extremely interesting quote that I think is the truth of our time in many ways. There are many people who live in today’s competitive and merciless world who would fit this outline. Many people who have undergone trauma and are conditioned to violence, many of those who serve(d) in the military as well. This is fairly common today, yet is seen as outlandish and isolating by societal norms. We all do feel compassion and sympathy in some ways, unless you of course are born with an impediment such as sociopathy. However all these aspects of environment and upbringing that can cause this outcome aren’t enough. Today, the media alone can numb us to sympathizing with others. This quote in my opinion culminates a main theme of Sontag’s writing regarding media and photography. A general outcome of being exposed to these horrifying and gruesome images is becoming completely numb. In many ways this in fact hinders one’s ability to Regard the Pain of Others, and that is why it’s so interesting. My question would be: “With the world being normalized to this competitive mindset (especially in the professional world), what do you think society would be like if we all sympathized with one another or were all in a way empaths? Would the world be better or worse than it is now?
