I think it explains a lot, not just in the UK or USA, but worldwide. With mass communication, the levels to which we are all exposed to tragedy are astounding. I think here in the US, Watergate was a turning point for us, and we dropped the previously held barrier between what was appropriately private and public in the media.
We also tend to blur the lines between natural and man-made disasters here, I believe our news reporting is far less concerned with reality than is the BBC. While Katrina was a natural disaster, the government's shameful lack of preparation and response was definitely man-made. Their first line of defense on that one is that "we didn't cause the storm", and that pisses me off, because I KNOW just how many stupid people will jump on board with that slogan. I still feel queasy just remembering watching those people on television who were huddled in the superdome- thirsty, hungry, some deathly il;, having no idea where their children were- it was a nightmare. Every day, I was sure troops would arrive with supplies for them, and day after day it didn't happen. Natural disaster, my ass.
I get so sick of seeing one form of ineptitude following another that the cynical side of me thinks that my government will use any opportunity, even a tragic one, for profit. Thus far, the evidence has borne that out.
Yes, we are numb, it takes a lot to shock us. Were that not so, we would never be tolerating the performance of any of our leaders, who are attacking our Constitution from the inside and unraveling the very fabric of our stability, and that of the world. We got indignant over Clinton's blow job, because we understand blowjobs. We understand the motivations and the simplicity of the decision- do it or don't do it. We like to judge things like that, because we have a pretty good chance of getting it "right". We don't want to have to consider anything outside the immediate issue at hand, like whether or not he and his wife were having sex, whether or not Hilary even gave a shit, whethter or not it was really something that affected the operation of the country. We just wanted to label him "wrong" and know that we were right in doing so.
Okay, so he was bad, and we spanked him. Guess we showed him, right? Wrong. We punished ourselves. Our children got to hear about blowjobs, white stains on blue dresses, and a host of issues that would have previously been considered "adult" prior to that. Yes, R rated movies have been around for a long time, but this was the first time the intimate details of a public figure's sex life had been an open topic for the news media AND THE COURTS in the history of our country. What did we win? Lack of privacy, lack of basic respect for the needs of others to address their own issues, it's a disgrace. Now, do you think for one second that the bastards who pushed this so far that we ended up with Ken Starr as a media icon are going to shoulder ANY of the responsibility for any of this? Nope, it's just pass-the-buck and employ plausible deniability. Whateverthefuck that means.
While we may be slowly waking up to the notion that this kind of numbness has been used against us, rest assured there are plenty who have known for quite a long time. When I see george bush on tv saying not much of anything to soothe us, I understand that his purpose is far better served when we really don't know what to feel.
If a man kills his brother, it's bad- really bad. If he wants to get out of it on an insanity plea, all he has to do is kill the rest of the town as well. Once shock sets in, people don't even remember the original crime.