Vicarious

* On my way to work today, I saw around 5 choppers hovering in the air about a quarter mile away from my office. Such sightings are often exciting, because you can be sure there is something significant happening out there and it definitely demands a media coverage. As I ran into my cubicle and checked the online print, I found that a bunch of farmers were being evicted from a farm. But the reason why it was making news was because a lot of celebrities had joined their protest against eviction - notably, Daryl Hanah was actually perched on a tree and refused to come down!!

* Another such incident happened about 2 months ago, when, on my way back home from work I saw a very familiar sighting of 5 helicopters flying close to where I was driving. I turned on the TV as soon as I reached home, only to see the local news providing live footage of the scene. Apparently, somebody had stolen a SUV from Beverly hills and had led police on a half hour car chase through the city which finally came to halt after a collision near South Central LA. The driver, however, was still involved in a stand-off with the cop, which was happily being broadcast even on CNN......and I sat rivetted at my TV for next half hour.

As I look back, in both the occassions, something unfortunate was happening to people involved. But, they surely did arouse my curiosity and excitement. Infact I was even proud to narrate these incidents to some of my friends later cos I almost witnessed them live. It surprises me how someone's misfortune could actually lighten up our rather uneventful day and give a great topic of conversation. Probably the key thing about these incidents is not the misfortune of others, but deviation from normal day-day life which makes them a point of interest. Which makes me wonder sometimes whether Humans by nature are designed to participate in such vicariousness?

Would there be any news at all in the world, if there was peace everywhere or If there was no poverty and no crime. What would the media cover if Brad Pitt didn't divorce Jenifer or If US didn't bomb and kill Al-Zarqawi (and a woman and a kid in the same facility). Katrina ravaged and battered the gulf coast. I am not that cruel to claim that this excited people, but it sure did invoke their curiosity. Now was this curiosity due to their concern for the people in the direct line of action or was it just to fathom the extent of nature's wrath, we would never know. In the build up this hurricane, I know a lot of people who would track these hurricanes hourly, and would find it a great talking point if the hurricane increased its speed by 5 mph, or should I say feel a sense of betrayal if the hurricane speed subsided cause the event is no more exciting !

The title to this post has been inspired by one of my all time favourite band Tool. They talk about this feeling in their new song Vicarious (lyrics are here - read it, it's a post in itself). The lyrics totally unsettled me, and I find very hard to agree with it, although I have a faint feeling that it is actually true for a lot of people. If you are interested, an amateur video of the same song can be found here.