Tragic

Here I am, sitting alone in the dark with the stale glare of a computer monitor lighting my surroundings. That and a few black lights and a couple strings of flicker-flame lights (those do make a sort of nice combo).

I was reminded again today of just how sick I am of people talking about tragedies. I wish people would just delete that word, and all it’s synonyms, from the English vocabulary.

Last night a club in Rhode Island burned down, and last I heard the death toll was at 75. All day long, on the hour, every hour, they would talk about how “tragic” the whole situation was.

Then there is that Mexican chick who got a heart and lung transplant, but then got the wrong organs. Today they found out that she has irreversible brain damage, so news people were talking about how that is such a “tragedy.”

There was also the barge or whatever that exploded in Staten Island and killed someone. Although it was only a single person, this was deemed a “tragedy” also.

Here in Minneapolis last night, a 3 year old somehow found his way out of a seven story window and fell to his death. Can you guess what word the reporters used to describe this event? It was a “tragic event.”

Now this is nowhere NEAR a complete list of things people say are “tragic,” this are just the first four that came to my head from the list of “tragedies” I heard about today. The printed media isn’t as bad as radio and TV, although occasionally you see a magazine or newspaper talking about something “tragic.”

For all these retards (and all those who think like them), let me give everyone a bit of a clue; LIFE IS “TRAGIC”!!!!!! PEOPLE DIE!!!!!! Death is just a part of life (albeit the end of it). There is no guarantee that people will live to be 80 (which could be more of a curse than a blessing). There is no rule that says that people aren’t supposed to die in large numbers in certain situations. So get the idea out of your head that people aren’t supposed to die, and SHUT UP about how “tragic” things can be!

I know this is kind of getting to be a rant, and if I had these people’s email addy’s I’d send this to them. But this is something that pisses the hell out of me every time I hear someone talking about something that they think is “tragic.”

I think there are two main reasons reporters like to use the word “tragedy.”

First, every news reporter wants to at least come across as caring, because people who either do care or really appear to care get ratings. Ratings mean they keep their jobs. Thus, the more “tragic” they can make events appear, the more they can try to offer their voice and reporting to the masses in consolation and appear to be soft-hearted and caring. And maybe then they can afford that new boat.

Second, now matter how bad a “tragedy” is, and how shocked people may be, EVERYONE is attracted by a “tragedy.” It’s human nature. We humans love (although very few would admit it because that would soil the “moral” image they have imagined of themselves) to see bad things happen to other people. Don’t think so?

How many “gawker slowdowns” are caused on the nation’s highways by people who are concerned about seeing if the people in the vehicles involved are getting out ok? None. People slow down because, and few will admit it, they want to see what happened. They want to catch a quick glimpse of a mangled body. They want to see a pool of blood. They want to see something that they can tell all their friends about.

What about 9/11? Why was the nation transfixed to their TV’s and radios? Was it because it seemed like we were under attack on our own soil for the first time in generations? Perhaps. But how many people, if they were truly honest, also were fascinated by the destruction? How many people stood (or sat) in awe as they viewed the images of planes flying into the twin towers, then watching as the burning goliaths imploded and fell to the ground?

And the newscasters affectionately named it the “9/11 tragedy” (which it wasn’t at all. It wasn’t a “tragedy,” it was a well planned, and very thought-through attempt to terrorize the majority of Americans…and it succeeded).

When it comes to “the news” and “tragedies” the only reason people refer to things like that is to get ratings.

Yes, I want to find a way to mount a crusade against these tragedy-mongers who want to call everything and everything that brings death a “tragedy.”

Personally, I can’t even think of a single thing that I would call tragic (well, maybe the birth, creation, or evolution of mankind, however it happened). There are NO tragedies, just events in this little sliver of time that we are witnessing.

People die. Get over it.

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“Paralyzed

Nothing’s getting through to me

Hypnotized

From all my surroundings

I wanna be something I could never be

I wanna say things that I could never say

*

I’m gonna do it again

I’m gonna do it again

I’m gonna do it again

*

Sick of my life

I’m tired of everything in my life

I never wanted to be sick of my life

I’m tired of everything in my life.”

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Godsmack