All Lives Are Equal, but Some Are More Equal than Others

[Debater Slayer]

Apparently, many media outlets believe that some lives are more equal than others. Why am I saying this? Well, let's take a look at a tragedy that took place two days ago:

At least 37 people have been killed and 181 wounded in two suicide bomb attacks in a residential area of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, officials say.

The bombers blew themselves up in a busy street in the southern suburb of Burj al-Barajneh, a stronghold of the Shia Islamist Hezbollah movement.

The Sunni jihadist group Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility, but there has been no independent confirmation.

It is the deadliest bombing in Beirut since the civil war ended 25 years ago.

Full article here: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34795797

While the incident has been covered by some media outlets (obviously, since we know about it), it has gotten nowhere near enough coverage, in my opinion. Unlike the Paris attacks, there has been no international condemnation of it. There haven't been any custom profile pictures made by Facebook to mourn the deaths of innocents resulting from the attack. The latter doesn't mean much, but the former is certainly an eye-opener. It is as if the lives of people in third-world countries were cheaper than those of people in developed countries.

There seems to be an almost-tacit consensus among the media that tragedies taking place in third-world countries are a normal, expected occurrence and so there is no need to bat much of an eye. The frequency of such incidents in unstable third-world countries has desensitized a lot of people to the killings of innocent people that periodically happen there. I think that is a very real and worrying trend.

If mass media is not going to care about the lives of innocent people in third-world countries just because of where those people happen to have been born, we can still care. We can be the alternative media.

 

[Lyndon]

Very well said, my sentiments exactly, My Best friend who's Lebanese just posted a Lebanese flag on facebook which looks just like the French flag with a Lebanese cedar tree added, I'm currently thinking about making it my profile picture, and if I even have the tech know how to possibly do that!!

 

[Jumi]

I'm lucky I don't have this bias. Both of these acts just add to untold others killed by ISIS for no good reason.

 

[Godobeyer]

the lives of people in third-world countries were cheaper than those of people in developed countries.

There seems to be an almost-tacit consensus among the media that tragedies taking place in third-world countries are a normal, expected occurrence and so there is no need to bat much of an eye. The frequency of such incidents in unstable third-world countries has desensitized a lot of people to the killings of innocent people that periodically happen there. I think that is a very real and worrying trend.

If mass media is not going to care about the lives of innocent people in third-world countries just because of where those people happen to have been born, we can still care. We can be the alternative media.

Not most Western here admit this .

they burned it and they just watch it burning "us" , if it's touched by some flammes ,they say "why you hurt us ?"

of course the Western media or politic leader don't care about third world cheaper "lives" killed everyday in Yeman, or Syria , Libya , or in Gaza before !!

innocent Muslims cost just numbers or may to terrorist .

 

[Augustus]

There seems to be an almost-tacit consensus among the media that tragedies taking place in third-world countries are a normal, expected occurrence and so there is no need to bat much of an eye. The frequency of such incidents in unstable third-world countries has desensitized a lot of people to the killings of innocent people that periodically happen there. I think that is a very real and worrying trend.

First of all, I want to point out I fully agree with the sentiment of your post. There have probably been hundreds of "Parises" in Bagdad alone over the past decade with very little acknowledgement.

It is this normalcy that makes them less "newsworthy" though. News relies on novelty, what happens often is, by definition, less newsworthy. I live in the developing world and it is common for people to be killed after football matches, boats sinking, concert crushes, etc. In the West, these would make headline news for days, if not weeks, here they often only merit a few paragraphs on page 6.

In America, a gang shooting is nothing for their national news, in Luxembourg it is major national news.

News is ultimately 'entertainment', it has to attract people's attention or it is not viable. The media is not rational, it is about sensation. It's not that Western lives are more valuable, it is that they are more "newsworthy".

This is not bias, just the way the media works.

It is not a trend; it has always been. It will never be any other way.

 

[Debater Slayer]

First of all, I want to point out I fully agree with the sentiment of your post. There have probably been hundreds of "Parises" in Bagdad alone over the past decade with very little acknowledgement.

It is this normalcy that makes them less "newsworthy" though. News relies on novelty, what happens often is, by definition, less newsworthy. I live in the developing world and it is common for people to be killed after football matches, boats sinking, concert crushes, etc. In the West, these would make headline news for days, if not weeks, here they often only merit a few paragraphs on page 6.

In America, a gang shooting is nothing for their national news, in Luxembourg it is major national news.

News is ultimately 'entertainment', it has to attract people's attention or it is not viable. The media is not rational, it is about sensation. It's not that Western lives are more valuable, it is that they are more "newsworthy".

This is not bias, just the way the media works.

It is not a trend; it has always been. It will never be any other way.

Interesting points. Thanks for your input!

By the way, your English is astoundingly good for someone who is not a native speaker or living with native speakers.

 

[AnnaCzereda]

It is as if the lives of people in third-world countries were cheaper than those of people in developed countries.

In addition to what Augustus wrote, there is also one more thing. We tend to care more about people who are somehow closer to us, whether they live nearby or share the same or similar culture. So if you live in Europe, the events in Paris will be more important to you than those in Africa because they are closer to you. If you live in the US, the events in Europe might still matter to you more than the events in the Arabic countries because the US and Europe share the same Western democratic culture. Islam is something alien to us.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

Everyone does it. I highly doubt people in Somalia, India or China care as much about the attacks in Paris as we in the West do. So why this double-standard when Western media doesn't give equal time to every single atrocity that happens in the world? Like Anna said, we instinctually care more about those who are more similar to us. It doesn't mean that the lives of those people don't matter, however.

Also, when these sorts of things happen in the West or in other highly developed nations, it's much more shocking because Western societies are generally more stable than most other areas of the world. When horrific **** happens in much of Africa, Latin America and Asia, it's not that shocking because much of those areas are very volatile. So you wouldn't be shocked or as shocked over a terrorist attack in Pakistan but you would be over a terrorist attack in Tokyo. I don't know what image of the West people around the world have, but getting shot up or blown up while at a concert, a bar, a sports game or a restaurant is not a common occurrence here.

 

[Iti oj]

Very well said, my sentiments exactly, My Best friend who's Lebanese just posted a Lebanese flag on facebook which looks just like the French flag with a Lebanese cedar tree added, I'm currently thinking about making it my profile picture, and if I even have the tech know how to possibly do that!!

I can help walk you through it. Pm me

 

[Lyndon]

Sincerely, thanks so very much for the offer Iti, but I did figure it out and its done already, instead of my ugly face now all my posts show the Lebanese flag, except there going to think it has something to do with France, because the colours are identical. Cheers.

 

[Deidre]

Good points, DS. I think that we (collective we, as in our culture) are sadly becoming desensitized to violence of all kinds. In all areas. The US has tons of violence among its own people, and it's like another day in the news stories who are broadcasting it, ho hum. It's partially what you are stating, and partially that as humans, we are becoming numb to how horrific these tragedies are.

 

[Lyndon]

Right on this topic, an excellent article from Australia;

https://newmatilda.com/2015/11/14/p...rability-and-our-selective-grief-and-outrage/

 

[sun rise]

DS, your comment is spot on. Some day I pray we will value every life equally.

 

[beenie]

If it snows in Alaska, it's not news. If it snows in Jamaica, it makes the news.

While I do agree with your sentiment, and I am saddened that mass casualties aren't reported when they occur in many "third world" countries, it is not only the frequency that makes it nearly impossible to have the sensational effect that the attacks in Paris has, it's also the INfrequency of such attacks in "civilized" societies.

In addition, it is important to understand that right now, it's Paris's turn. That, in my opinion, doesn't discount the value of lives lost in other societies... all human life is equal. Other societies should receive media time; it just needs to be at the appropriate time and venue.

 

[MARCELLO]

People's blood is the cheapest thing in 3rd world and developing countries. Earthquakes kill masses routinely,terrorist kill masses on a daily basis. Journalism kills even facebook messages kill. As long as there are so many vampires over there,a solution seems to be hard to found.

 

[Glaurung]

It's not that I think that any one life is inherently more important than another, but the fact is I'm simply not as emotionally invested in parts of the world utterly alien to me. I've been to Paris and French is my second language, so when a hundred and thirty or so innocent civilians in Paris are murdered in cold blood by islamists it's going to be far more noteworthy to me than hundred or so dead in yet another attack in the Middle East. I can relate with Paris more than I can with Beirut because what happened in Paris could have just as easily occurred in Melbourne. What happens in the Middle East or North Africa is while horrible, ultimately an abstraction for most of us here in the West. An attack in Lebanon, Pakistan, Israel, Yemen and so on is just another news story about "that" part of the world.

 

[Sunstone]

News is ultimately 'entertainment', it has to attract people's attention or it is not viable. The media is not rational, it is about sensation. It's not that Western lives are more valuable, it is that they are more "newsworthy".

This is not bias, just the way the media works.

It is not a trend; it has always been. It will never be any other way.

^This, to a large extent. But I still think there is often a bit of bias of some sort going on. In other words, the reasons the media doesn't cover Beirut as well as it covers Paris are multiple, rather than singular.

 

[ShivaFan]

Maybe some are getting their news "coverage" from the wrong sources.

I just saw FOX news, e.g. Wallace, cover it as well as always mentioning Beruit, Paris, the Russian plane, as ISIS attacks, but on all the right-wing forums and news sites covered it extensively as they always do regarding these Islamic fanatics, every attack by these fanatics against India is covered heavily, Bali, Philipines, attacks on the US, in Canada, UK, et all, then they get accused by the left-wing media of Islam-bashing and Islamophobia.

Maybe you get your news from the left-wing news media who won't report all these extensive and global Islamic terrorist attacks like the new media does that then gets attacked by the leftists who are in the minority? The leftis media consideds it almost a hate crime or hate speech to report these global assaults on human dignity by the Islamo-fascists, so they ignore it. Turn the dial, change the channel, get involved, listen, to the new media. Then you will get the news.

Beruit once the Paris of the Middle East, Paris the Beruit of Europe?

 

[Flankerl]

People are tribal by nature.
If something bad happens somewhere we whether we want to or not imagine ourselves in the situation.
Whether this works depends on how alike this place is.
Most people from Western, Central, Eastern, Southern and Northern Europe can more easily imagine to live in Paris than Beirut or Ankara.

That's all there is to it.

 

[Sunstone]

People are tribal by nature.

Do you think human biology is human destiny?