Dead Society

A Culture Obsessed with
Watching the Tragedy of

Others

by Corinna vanGerwen

And in vigils of global mourning - whether for
the Princess of Wales or the victims of the
recent massacre in Littleton, Colorado - pop
culture blithely converts sorrow into spectacle
even as that same culture is demonized as the

cause of death.

-Brian D. Johnson, ‘The Second Coming’,
Maclean's, May 24, 1999.

There is no question that our popular culture has reached an
apex. With the impending millennium, change is on the mind
of the world. We are looking to the past, evaluating it, and
wondering where it might lead us in the future. With our cul-
ture evolving into a less concrete form, no longer determined
and controlled by political bodies and geographic locations, it
has become ephemeral, existing in ideas and information. Our
media-based society has finally caught up with the concepts
put forward by McLuhan and Chomsky. The works seem even
more relevant now than they were at the time of their writing.
The most recent aspect under fire, of course, is the media's
relation to increasing violence within society. Media culture
became the scapegoat in both the car crash involving Princess
Diana and the Littleton shooting. The paparazzi, tabloid news-
papers, the music of Marilyn Manson, the movies ‘Basketball
Diaries’, ‘Natural Born Killers’, and ‘The Matrix’ were all blamed
for having a part in these deaths. Yet, with this abhorrence for
what the media is doing to our youth we still read. We still
surf. We still watch.

With all this bad press for the press, the phenomenon of late-
breaking stories with live coverage and an extended shelf-life
of weeks, even months, still exists. News stories about human
tragedies, where the image becomes immediately recognizable,

ge by Kelly Hart

@ Even with this abhorrence for what the media is
doing to our youth we still read. We still surf.

We still watch.

Dead Society

A Culture Obsessed with
Watching the Tragedy of

Others

by Corinna vanGerwen

And in vigils of global mourning - whether for
the Princess of Wales or the victims of the
recent massacre in Littleton, Colorado - pop
culture blithely converts sorrow into spectacle
even as that same culture is demonized as the
cause of death.

-Brian D. Johnson, ‘The Second Coming’,

Maclean's, May 24, 1999.

There is no question that our popular culture has reached an
apex. With the impending millennium, change is on the mind
of the world. We are looking to the past, evaluating it, and
wondering where it might lead us in the future. With our cul-
ture evolving into a less concrete form, no longer determined
and controlled by political bodies and geographic locations, it
has become ephemeral, existing in ideas and information. Our
media-based society has finally caught up with the concepts
put forward by McLuhan and Chomsky. The works seem even
more relevant now than they were at the time of their writing.
The most recent aspect under fire, of course, is the media’s
relation to increasing violence within society. Media culture
became the scapegoat in both the car crash involving Princess
Diana and the Littleton shooting. The paparazzi, tabloid news-
papers, the music of Marilyn Manson, the movies ‘Basketball
Diaries’, ‘Natural Born Killers’, and ‘The Matrix’ were all blamed
for having a part in these deaths. Yet, with this abhorrence for
what the media is doing to our youth we still read. We still
surf. We still watch

With all this bad press for the press, the phenomenon of late-
breaking stories with live coverage and an extended shelf-life
of weeks, even months, still exists. News stories about human
tragedies, where the image becomes immediately recognizable,

Image by Kelly Hart

@ Even with this abhorrence for what the media is
doing to our youth we still read. We still surf.

We still watch.