Thursday, January 4, 2007

I can't even stand America's Funniest Home Videos

A lot has been made over the video of Saddam's last dance.

I haven't seen it and never intend to.

The print media has had a field day with this one. On the one hand, they are gleefully carrying all kinds of pictures of it. On the other, they're carrying numerous columns/editorials either denouncing the video itself or wailing about the nature of humans that causes people to want to view it.

One column, in Thursday's National Post, was titled WE LOVE TO WATCH - just like that, all caps. In it, Warren Kinsella wrote that "some, perhaps most" people would be lying if, when asked, they denied watching such video. He cited the fact that it had dominated the charts on Technocrati for several days since it made its way onto the Internet.

I wonder if perhaps Kinsella, who also admits watching the video, isn't just making excuses for what seems to be a personal dilemma.

There are no reliable numbers on how many people are or aren't watching the video. I find the presumption that most of us are gawking and walking, what he calls, "narrow moral ground" to be inane. Some, such as myself, aren't watching it. Some who are have no moral qualms so there is no "narrow" involved.

Personally, I don't need to watch an execution. I don't find the idea intriguing, amusing or gratifying.

I also think that, in civilized societies, the whole idea went out of style about 150 years ago.

2 comments:

Baconeater said...

You should join up with this group.

I did.

But you belong there more than me.

Catherine said...

I haven't seen the video and don't plan to. It's enough for me to know that he's dead, without having to watch him die.