Media Melodrama

It is strange that when things go wrong in an environment or situation fraught with potentiality for disaster, people suddenly take heed, or they make the poor transgressor the conduit of unfettered disgust and outrage. Two particular cases demonstrating both sides of this issue have occurred recently: the unilateral backlash against British Petroleum (BP) for the Deepwater Horizon spill, and the consternation of the public and media at large that something can go horribly wrong at sea, and a 16 year old American girl can be swallowed whole in the Indian Ocean.

What makes BP unique from any other oil company in the history of humanity? Society has implicitly condoned the behavior of petroleum companies for years, and it is hypocritical and fragrantly disingenuous to suddenly be surprised by this kind of disaster, and the peripheral managerial atrocities that have been revealed as a result of the crisis. This is not the exception, this is the rule, and we all knew that. To pretend otherwise is a disgusting mockery, and an insult to intelligence.

The second case is a bit different. A 16 year old is determined to circumnavigate the world nonstop by herself, and in so doing become the youngest person to make the journey. She ends up going missing somewhere in the Indian Ocean. A frantic search begins. There is but one question: what did you expect? To embark on a contest against the forces of nature is to knowingly wager one’s life. It seems that there is a common psychological defense mechanism that functions as a risk panacea for all parties involved. Nobody wants to believe that when they (or their loved one) are going to climb a mountain, or sail around the world by themselves, that they could die; instead, they trick themselves with a nourishing illusion conjured by selfish stupidity (ambition). Sometimes they go missing: it is the price they pay.

As a society we need to stop playing dumb. Turning people and businesses into melodramatic heroes and villains is juvenile. Is America, and the world at large, that thirsty for drama? Do we need an elaborate staging of things that aren't surprising in the slightest? Probably not.