On Human Understanding and the Sensationalizing of the Media (as representative of our culture at large)
I just picked up An Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke. I'm having a difficult time getting into it. I just keep mulling over the phrase "Human Understanding." Locke means, of course, to philosophize on the way the intellect (as if it were some mechanism separate from us) goes about comprehending ideas. In other words: the way we think. Since then and with the addition of Freud's theories and all that shot off from there, this has become a preoccupation. How do we think? What is the process? And, for the arts, how do we represent this?
Nowadays all I hear is "what do you think?" "How do you feel?" in light of the Virginia Tech shootings. And frankly, today I'm pissed off about it. What right have I to think or try to understand this? This situation isn't about me. Stop trying to make people feel like they are a part of some community that gets to have a say in this. You're just sensationalizing.
Perhaps I should back up out of abstraction and fill you in on the details. I was approached by a news affiliate on campus today asking me if I could reflect on the Virginia Tech tragedy. I was running late for a meeting and didn't have time to process the question before the camera was behind the reporter and a microphone was in my face. I wanted to tell her I was late and that I couldn't comment, but the pressure to perform was so great that I was ashamed at my impulse to run. She would think of me as some narcissist who didn't have time for the going-ons of the world. Or perhaps as a callus member of society. In short, I felt obligated to publicly make my regret and my sorrow known.
And then I began to ramble and began confessing how on-edge I am and how the mere sight of police on campus sends me to high alert. I spoke of the graduate student who ran into the grad lounge last night telling me that UNR had been evacuated.
I panicked. I checked MSN, Foxnews, CNN and not one of the websites published news about it. I called a friend asking them to check the news and nothing was on. I then went to the UNR website and found that they weren't evacuating but on alert and, for the night, on lockdown.
Human Understanding: how we think. Perhaps we are too preoccupied with how or what we think about a tragedy. I'm a wreck. But what right have I--all these miles away to talk about it. This isn't about me. It's about a guy who shot over 50 people. It's about a man who killed and then killed himself.
The questions should be posed to the guy. He is, after all, the subject.
But he's dead, you'd say. Or perhaps you'd say that you don't want to hear him.
My answer: [silence]
Nowadays all I hear is "what do you think?" "How do you feel?" in light of the Virginia Tech shootings. And frankly, today I'm pissed off about it. What right have I to think or try to understand this? This situation isn't about me. Stop trying to make people feel like they are a part of some community that gets to have a say in this. You're just sensationalizing.
Perhaps I should back up out of abstraction and fill you in on the details. I was approached by a news affiliate on campus today asking me if I could reflect on the Virginia Tech tragedy. I was running late for a meeting and didn't have time to process the question before the camera was behind the reporter and a microphone was in my face. I wanted to tell her I was late and that I couldn't comment, but the pressure to perform was so great that I was ashamed at my impulse to run. She would think of me as some narcissist who didn't have time for the going-ons of the world. Or perhaps as a callus member of society. In short, I felt obligated to publicly make my regret and my sorrow known.
And then I began to ramble and began confessing how on-edge I am and how the mere sight of police on campus sends me to high alert. I spoke of the graduate student who ran into the grad lounge last night telling me that UNR had been evacuated.
I panicked. I checked MSN, Foxnews, CNN and not one of the websites published news about it. I called a friend asking them to check the news and nothing was on. I then went to the UNR website and found that they weren't evacuating but on alert and, for the night, on lockdown.
Human Understanding: how we think. Perhaps we are too preoccupied with how or what we think about a tragedy. I'm a wreck. But what right have I--all these miles away to talk about it. This isn't about me. It's about a guy who shot over 50 people. It's about a man who killed and then killed himself.
The questions should be posed to the guy. He is, after all, the subject.
But he's dead, you'd say. Or perhaps you'd say that you don't want to hear him.
My answer: [silence]
