Quote:
Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan
The news doesn't report everything... only what is sensationalist enough to keep people's attention and garner ratings. Although it seems as though the world is filled with constant atrocities, the fact of the matter is that acts of kindness and justice far outnumber the acts of injustice and nastiness you see on CNN and your local news stations.
How many people who survive car accidents are reported? How many samaritans' donations documented? How many children saved from starvation? How many conflicts averted by the local police, or concerned neighbors? How many pets saved from abusive owners? Trust me, they are out there in droves, and if they at least got equal time on TV, you'd know that this world isn't nearly as bad as the news services would have you believe.
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agreed. most things make the news because they're abnormal and freakish. someone who avoided being a victim of crime isn't as 'sexy' and lurid as a bullet riddled corpse. it's not newsworthy if a pet was adopted. it IS newsworthy if said pet savages their owner.
to outsiders i'm sure the crime rate in america seems atrocious. but they fail to realize that we have 320 million people living here. many of our states alone are bigger and more populous than entire nations. we're actually doing pretty damn well considering our population size.
i think i'm beginning to look at some of the 'grit' and pessimism in fiction as a reflection of my own fears. fears that are obviously shared by many authors. i don't really fear being attacked by my neighbors. i don't fear aliens, disaster or apocalypse. what i fear is the loss of knowledge, 'self' and my remaining freedoms to an all encompassing authority. and i don't think it's an unrealistic fear when i see the rising militarization of our police forces, the will of the people continually being subverted, increased monitoring and security presence, employers asking for facebook passwords, etc. you can find these stories on a daily basis, it's not 'tin foil hat' stuff anymore. those are my fears and my own pessimism, they just happen to come from a real place. no future in science fiction is as scary as the one orwell portrayed in 1984, huxley in brave new world and bradbury in fahrenheit 451. i think we're living in a combined version of those dystopias. big brother is taking over and we're too amused by the bread&circuses to care.
that's the pessimism i can identify with, not the 'everybody is a treacherous scumbag' sort.