Neda Soltan - Martyr for free speech - Gunned down, Tehran, 6/20/09
** The world is becoming more transparent... I started to write these words earlier this week. I was horrified by the brutality used in Iran to quell the protests in the aftermath of Ahmadinojad's "election". I was equally struck by the power and courage of the protesters.
Armed only with cellphones and the internet, they were able to provide damning proof of the government's response to their protests of election fraud.
At first I believed that I was seeing a tipping point. I believed that perhaps we were crossing a threshold where the one way directional feed of news was changing. Mainstream media proved sluggish at best; dumbed down and sugar coated. But the story was there on tweets, blog feeds and youtube.
Now (Saturday am) we've had a cheating governor and untimely deaths of celebrities supplant all other world news.
As an artist I find my influences in my interaction with the world as it is. Right now I'm seeing that transparent moment already clouding over.
I'm reminded of some lines from the movie "Good Night and Good Luck" concerning the life of broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow. "We have a built in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information.... television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse and insulate us."
8 comments:
This was certainly a difficult week. First a totally anonymous woman's death got the world's attention and then one of the most famous human beings in the world died in a way that perhaps many of us should have seen coming.
Thanks for the visit -K- certainly a see saw of attachments and identifications.
Farrah and Michael in the same day... guess we will no doubt see more and more icons from our past disappearing into the void... they certainly did sweep all the other news away... including Neda... strange priorities in our world these days... when soccer players get hundred million dollar contracts, while hundreds of millions of other people are starving...
So true Owen - strange days indeed.
I usually have my own say, but I like what K said.
Hi, new here.
what can I say, newsertainment here just has to entertain and instead of just reporting the sad losses of icons has to go into obsessive overdrive to the exclusion of all else. As Owen said, strange priorities.
Hi Maggie, I'm glad you found my site and left a comment. I spent a few minutes on your site and intend to visit when I can spend more time. Your writing is very lush and gutsy.
Hi Corrine- I'd agree - Celebrity overdrive. I caught a curious interview with Jessie Jackson who was urging Michael's fans not to commit suicide!!
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