Immolation

Our news is filled with horrifying events everyday. I have Google Desktop on my laptop, and one of the most addictive features is its news stream, which updates me with news stories every few minutes. In a hyper-informed world, I am even more immersed in world news than I really need to be. Additionally, I receive a news alert from Yahoo everyday that pulls together news stories related to various topics in the Middle East that interest me. Thus, I probably read about more horrors and atrocities than is really healthy. Two news stories have particularly horrified me in the past few days, moving me to physical revulsion, both involving setting people on fire while they are still alive, and not in the Buddhist monk protest way either. The first occurred outside of an Iraqi mosque, the second incident a few days later in Darfur. In the United States, we hear about real violence everyday, and we are entertained by violence in our movies, but this kind of violence indicates something different, something even worse. To me, when you are willing to set someone on fire, it indicates a complete breakdown of civility - in a way, both people have lost part of their humanity. Merely writing about it leaves a pit in my stomach, making me feel physically ill.