4/22/2013

Real journalism - Syria

I came across this a while ago on Upworthy (one of the better video-trend blogs) and bookmarked it a few weeks ago. I didn't watch it until tonight.

I don't watch TV or keep up with the news much so I didn't hear about the bombing in Boston until the day after when it was brought up in passing by a friend. Confused, I googled some videos to see what he was talking about. I watched the runners go by, with my eyes squinted expecting some distant explosion that would feel.. just that: distant. I was totally shocked to see the reality of it.

I don't know why it never hit me before. I was 11 during 9/11 and at that age it was just something you had to be polite about, but I felt nothing. Watching that bomb go off in Boston, in those crowds of people, felt like the first time my body had truly recognized violence for what it is.

I thought about how a friend of mine brought up an argument about movie censorship. He said "violence in movies shouldn't be censored with less blood, it should show more carnage, it should be forced to be more real, if anything." We go on day by day hearing about the horrors of some shooting, some bombing, somewhere in the world. But I only ever see the photos of people weeping. We're "desensitized" to violence because we never see its reality in any way.

In any case, the video below is the first serious piece of war journalism I've ever seen. Not that there aren't other pieces out there, but this was a first for me. Warning: it's very, very real with many images of people buried collapsed buildings that have been bombed - many of whom don't make it out alive. I think things like this need to be seen by everyone to understand the true meaning of war, the true meaning of violence.



greg

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