reality/unreality

Widespread devastation. Anarchy. Violence. Screaming hordes of desperate frightened people. A case of every man for himself, with the hope of relief distant in the horizon, like some shimmering mirage.

No, I'm not talking about New Orleans, although I might have been.

I was thinking more of War of the Worlds, the Steven Spielberg-Tom Cruise film. But it could have been The Day After Tomorrow, or Independence Day, or Dante's Peak, or any other disaster movie worthy of the name. The fact is, Hollywood has churned out so many catastrophes over the years that we almost know what to expect when we head for the theatre to catch the latest such product. All that's different are the little details: the actors, the type of disaster, the location etc.

Which brings me to New Orleans.

It's really unsettling to see the pictures and read the articles about the flooding, and have the feeling that I've seen all this before. The scenes emanating from the TV and described in the papers seem so familiar, that I have to remind myself that this is all happening in the real world. The people dying are not extras, the houses aren't sets, the suffering is real.

I wonder if watching too many movies has desensitized me to the images I see in the news. Is it better to have stayed away from the theatres instead, and be floored by the staggering scale of the devastation? Is being detached preferable to being horrified?

No doubt in time there will be a film or many about the events in New Orleans. There will be stories written about it. And it will be incorporated into the realm of fiction, to be enjoyed at our leisure. But in the meantime real people are suffering. Real lives are being shattered. Real pandemonium is taking place. Many people, actual people, will not live to enjoy the Hollywood happy ending.

The real world doesn't guarantee happy endings. But it's easy to forget that when the line between reality and fiction is so faint. And it's so easy to be indifferent when events you're watching are unfolding on the other side of the planet. It's easy, but is it right?