Am I the only one becoming desensitized?

In the last week we have had 2 major catastrophes. The cyclone in Burma that could possibly kill over 200,000 people. www.theglobeandmail.com...

The earthquake in China that has killed 12,000 so far but I fear it is just the tip of the iceberg.

This is just in the last week. In the meantime, we had some tornadoes kill 22 people in the Midwest US (www.liveleak.com...). It didn't even make a blip on the radar due to the other tragedies. We have wildfires in Florida that have the Gov declaring a state of emergency (www.cnn.com...). Both of these stories would have been huge headlines just a year or two ago.

US casualties have surpassed the 4,000 mark. Reports of over 600,000 dead Iraqi's. Reports of 5,000,000 orphans in Iraq.

Am I the only one who is becoming numb to the tragic? I remember 9/11 and hearing that 3,000 people had died and I was just floored. I vividly remember thinking "Thank God more people weren't at work" since the towers could hold as many as 30,000. I remember thinking just how tragic it would have been. Now though, we are just seeing these huge death tolls and it has become numbing. 3000 dead just doesn't have much of an impact anymore.

I am not trying to be cold here. I do care, I am just acknowledging the fact that it doesn't feel the same as it used to. Am I alone in this? This really is sad to me because it makes me feel less human... if that makes sense.


(forgive me if I left out any tragedies that have impacted you, it really is tough to keep track anymore)

I learned to keep a cold heart on the outside, let certain things affect me on the inside, and just stop paying attention to the news. Its all rather depressing now a days, I get my news from sites like this and my surroundings. Besides, I dont want to hear about the latest Brit problem or the latest tragedy in the same 20 mins.

Double post(dont know how)

[edit on 13-5-2008 by The Bear Man]

I think most people are feeling the same, I know I am.
The way the mass media presents these things is a large part of the cause but also simply having catastrophe news from around the world is something that the modern human mind has to learn to deal with. This is the first time in history that any one person has heard so much terrible news.

At the same time, is desensitization not necessary when you are trying to get people to support a war that is in essence glorified murder?

Unfortunately in the age of 24 hour media coverage, we are privy to more and more information.

Sadly, the media has a tendency of focusing only on the negative stories that arise.

Nobody covers with any interest stories of scientific breakthroughs, or of lives saved in pioneering surgeries. They focus on death and destruction.

I empathise with you, Karl. I have lost my sense of tragedy, because I now view these events as routine. I feel sorrow, but also acceptance that what will be will be.

Who knows if that is the correct attitude or not. It is philosophical, it is stoic. But it is also devoid of human emotion.

reply to post by 44soulslayer

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Would you say it was by choice that you did this, to cope? Or is it just something that you have noticed, but did not choose to do voluntarily?

Somewhat a combination of both actually.

I wouldnt classify it as a "coping mechanism".

I think you got it right when you said it was more "desensitisation", which I put down to extensive media coverage and the increased frequency of reporting disasters.

I got rather angry at myself once because I heard a rather sad story about someone getting stabbed in London and found myself not caring at all. Worse than that I was actually bored of hearing such stories.

I think it is also a byproduct of increased philosophical awareness though. As I grow older, I am learning that the world cannot be perfect and that "**** happens" to put it crudely.

So overall a combination of philosophical awareness and overexposure by the media.

reply to post by 44soulslayer

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Thanks for the response. I think you and I are on a pretty much the same page here.

My husband and I discuss this all of the time. It is one of the reasons I am so fascinated by Silent Weapons fo Quiet Wars. Info-bombs.

The mind is a meaty computer, we absorb everything - whether we realize it or not. All of what we absorb acts on our psyche. Some of us can endure it, some cannot. It's no surprise to me that there is such a sharp rise in the rates of depression and other, more severe, forms of mental illness.

Additionally, you can attract the energy of the information you are receiving. That is bad. Ask yourself: Does knowing about these calamities and other horrors help the people suffering? Does it help you? Truthfully, the answer is no. So why are we obsessed with other people's tragedies? Is it voyeurism? I really don't know but I know it is not healthy.

Terrance McKenna's theory of Novelty also plays into it. The world is definitely changing exponentially, generating more and more information and stimulous which is driving us all collectively insane. There will be an culmination, an end point, but I don't know what.

[edit on 13/5/08 by kosmicjack]

I realized I was becoming desensitized last year during the coverage of the Stacy Peterson case. Watching her smug, arrogant husband Drew strut around like a man without a care in the world enraged me. I thought he probably killed her and had disposed of her in a way that he knew couldn't be discovered. That was it: I didn't want to hear anymore. In fact, I realized I didn't even care. Sure, for her family it is a tragedy, but I didn't know her and I shouldn't have feelings about this whatsoever. Then there were more and more reports of missing women. I still didn't care.



Absolutey. I've stopped watching the news because I was sick and tired of the presidential primaries, but what I didn't realize was how much better I would feel without hearing about all the tragedy and misery in the world.

I have become desensitized and I prefer feeling this way.

reply to post by kosmicjack

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Did you and I have a theory of Novelty discussion before? I find McKennas theories to be very fascinating and that does play in to the topic. Not sure why I didn't link them together. You are kind of blowing my mind lately with how "eye to eye" we are on many issues.

I believe the news in general works to desensitize the human race against tragedy.


I think it's intentional.


Think about it... the news COULD tell you about the good things going on, the triumphs, the successes, the miracles... but do they?


No, we're just meant to believe this is an awful world and getting worse. Be careful what you believe; it might become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I am becoming desensitised.. just a little. The headline about the earthquake in china was all I needed to read to understand. My imagination has burned an image of faces contorted in pain and grief I see in flashes through the day and whenever I blink. I don't need to know the details, I know what's happened, that's enough.
I'm upset on the inside, on the outside I keep working and conversing with office colleagues.
But what's important to note here is I consciously hold myself back from feeling what I would naturally feel. I guess if I keep doing that, I'll train myself into being desensitised... The question is: Do I want that?
There are good arguments for and against, I'm not sure... I think I don't want that.

reply to post by Recouper

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I understand how you feel. I don't want it either. Sadly though, I don't know if I could cope with it all if I hadn't become desensitized. I am a depressed person as it is, so to focus on all the pain and suffering going on and let myself feel the grief would probably push me over the edge.

In some ways I envy those who can feel a little numb on these issues,

I really can’t, I Cry all the time over hearing what’s going on in the world,
But in some ways it makes me stronger and to be honest makes me look deeper in to what’s happening, it makes me want and search for the answers,
Makes me Strive for more information and read about small ways that can be changed,

I always think... what could I do? What little change could I make?

Due to certain news story’s I now try and buy as much fair trade as I can, if its on offer in the shops ill pick that over something else,


but I do get your point and I do hear more and more people saying that is how thy feel, Its media overload, Information overload and im not sure our minds can handle the true thoughts on the amount of death and destruction that we are faced with on a daily schedule,

It’s out minds way of protecting us I guess.

In my mind i know exactly how i should feel - bloody outraged.

I think the MSM should take a more mature approach to these issues, for example the Junta in Burma, the MSM has only touched on the true extent of the atrocities the Junta have inflicted on it's people, and of course - No one seems quite ready yet to call them out for criminal negligence.

As for China, i know i'm somewhat less enraged by that, because at the very least the problem is contained within a system where it's government acknowledges the fact that it's people are a power in their own right.

It isn't the media that froze my soul though, it's the people around me - they were desensitized a long time before i was, and now i know that not only is the process inflicted via the media, i now know that people desensitize each other, and it is the realisation of this that stopped me dead in my tracks.

This is why we must address our individual psychologies personally, each and every one of us.

[edit on 14-5-2008 by Anti-Tyrant]

All is not lost however, one's heart can be thawed.

A very large part of the process however, is in learning to accept fear.

Accepting fear wasn't a problem until I had a child. Now I simply have to try to not be overwhelmed with it. I fear for her in the world I brought her into.

reply to post by Karlhungis

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That fear is something a child can pick up on.

Be brave, even reckless if you have to - she will learn from it.

This thread is more important than the flag-count shows.

The medias bombardment of negative-news not only causes a negative and fearful outlook on life but also does numb the mind to the actual suffering happening. We sit there, dissociated from the event...

"Hey look. Bunch of people being murdered on TV. Do we still have coke in the fridge by the way?"