Mocking Tragedy

"Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall down an open manhole cover and die."

-Mel Brooks

So this entry is a response to someone who was apparently offended at this anecdote:

so I decided to wear board shorts today and **** walks out of his room looks at me and says, "I'm going to wear swim trunks today too... ****'s not gonna be the only one prepared."... BAWAHAHAHA!

Apparently it showed insensitivity to the disaster in Japan. And yeah, it probably was a bit insensitive. But why does that matter? Daily life is filled with "insensitive" things. Just look through modern day television. Jokes are typically made at the expense of others, from Zoolander mocking models to Always Sunny in Philadelphia mocking...well...pretty much everyone. If we had a world with no jokes that anyone could possibly get offended at, I imagine we'd be stuck telling a lot of knock knock jokes and bad puns.

People cope with tragedy in different ways. Some people take solace in humor, even black humor. Some people ignore it altogether. Who are we to judge and say that they're not accepting it properly?

Since it's a major disaster is there some obligation to approach it to the extreme I see others on the internet applying? Pray for Japan, donate to Japan, help Japan. And yet how many in Africa die every day? I have only seen a few people take note and ask for prayers for them. I doubt many of these people will mark the day of the earthquake in their calendars down any more than they marked the days Indonesia, China, America, and countless other countries suffered similar disasters.

It reminds me of that quote "When you kill one it is a tragedy, when you kill a million it is a statistic". Only apparently there is additionally a difference between killing slowly, day by day, in comparison to a big event. One warrants a facebook post. The other is simply something on a flyer few will ever read, handed out in vain to students on library walk.

Now I'm not saying praying is bad, or caring is bad. However you approach these things is your prerogative. But it's yours alone. No one else has a responsibility to care, no more than you have a responsibility to care for a random stranger halfway across the globe.

And I contest the notion that somehow by not caring, by not saying "Pray of the Japanese!" or not donating a dollar that somehow this shows how we don't care for our fellow man. There is nothing that says these people who won't donate a dollar for a Japanese are somehow worthless human beings as a result. You have to take their whole life behavior into account before you can make a statement like that, and I doubt any of us can truly understand another person's life to that extent. If we think we can, we're likely lying to ourselves.

The average human being can not live through life constantly focusing on tragedy and loss. Try living your day constantly feeling sad for the millions suffering world wide. Good luck. Until you can live your life like that, don't act as thought others are obligated to look at one tragic event with the same awestruck manner as yourself.

The TLDR version of this post?

I'm saying one can laugh at that picture at top and still be a decent human being.

Of course, there is something to be said about priorities.

(Photo by Richard Gilbert)

What are your thoughts about the way humans respond to tragedy? Am I a terrible person for laughing at that picture and not giving Japan much more thought than "That sucks"? Let me know.

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Edit: I remembered something I wanted to add in here. In another post I complained about how people wanted to rush over to tragedy, to stare and gawk at it. The example was a girl who attempted to commit suicide. Doing a little good 'ol reconciliation of cognitive dissonance, here's what I've concluded:

I don't care if individuals like to do that. It's their life. I personally find it distasteful, but I won't say they can't do that or give them a lengthy lecture on it. Hence why I only gripe about it here. To them, I have discussions about their thoughts on it, if they feel like chatting about it, but as long as they're content with who they are , then whatever. I won't go running to stare at it.

I do find black humor funny though. Might just be my way of coping. A "Don't take things too seriously" sort of thing.

I do have issue with the fact that a job supervisor encouraged the "rush and stare at the shiny lights and sirens" mentality from that other night. But that has more to do with the fact that they were a supervisor than with any personal judgement.

If you have any more questions, I'd be happy to elaborate and clarify.

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And another quote to jog your thoughts on the subject:

"Max, six billion people on the planet, you're getting bent out of shape cause of one fat guy. "

"Well, who was he?"

"What do you care? Have you ever heard of Rwanda?"

"Yes, I know Rwanda."

"Well, tens of thousands killed before sundown. Nobody's killed people that fast since Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Did you bat an eye, Max?"

"What?"

"Did you join Amnesty International, Oxfam, Save the Whales, Greenpeace, or something? No. I off one fat Angelino and you throw a hissy fit."

"Man, I don't know any Rwandans."

"You don't know the guy in the trunk, either."

-Collateral

Next time: Racist rants. And why I don't give a flying fuck about those either.