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Monday, December 26, 2011

Horrors / Life Don't Read This Post If You Want to Cling on to Your Holiday Cheer

Posted by Goldy on Mon, Dec 26, 2011 at 10:46 AM

It wouldn't be Christmas without the annual wave of cruelly ironic Christmas day tragedy headlines. You know, those there-but-for-the-grace-of-God-go-I stories that bring a tear to the eye, and a sense of thankfulness at your own relative good fortune.

It's not so much irony in particular that we humans have a penchant for, but rather, patterns in general. That's kinda what consciousness is—imposing some sort of cognitive order on the world we perceive—and so we tend to see patterns and connections, even in random or coincidental events. This may just be an artifact of the way our brains work, but it's an artifact that imbues the world with a sense of meaning.

Which I guess is why the holiday tragedy is such an emotionally powerful meme:

A 9-year-old Clinton girl was killed when a tree fell on her family's Ford Explorer as they drove along Bailey Road just before 1 p.m. Sunday while on their way to a family Christmas gathering.

Acting Fire Chief Antonio Conte teared up yesterday at the scene of a house fire that killed advertising executive Madonna Badger’s three children and retired parents on Christmas morning. Badger ... lost her 10-year-old and 7-year-old twin daughters and her parents in the fire. ... In yet another cruel twist of fate, Badger’s parents, Lomer and Paula Johnson, would have celebrated their 49th wedding anniversary on December 26. Mr. Johnson, retired, had been playing Santa Claus at the Saks Fifth Avenue in Manhattan before heading to his daughter’s for the holiday.

Seven people have been found dead after being shot in a Texas apartment on Christmas day... The family was reportedly cleaning up holiday wrapping paper when a man dressed as Santa Claus fired shots.

Fear gripped Nigeria on Monday after a wave of Christmas bombings blamed on Islamists killed at least 40, including worshippers who were left begging for mercy as they exited a church.

Tragedies all. And my heart goes out to the victims and their families. But objectively, these events would have been just as tragic had they occurred any other day of the year, and without the Christmas theme. They just wouldn't be imbued with such a sense of cruel irony.

And that's the, um, ironic thing about our need to see patterns and connections in everything. On the one hand, it helps us cope by finding meaning in an otherwise meaningless and indifferent world. On the other hand, it can make coping with such tragedies all the more difficult by magnifying the sense of loss.

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And it wouldn't be Slog without a repeat of items another Slogger posted earlier today, in this case Dan in his "...on Christmas morning" Morning News. Though your Learning-Annex-Syllabus overlay does make this unique.

Posted by gloomy gus on December 26, 2011 at 11:08 AM

And to make it even more meta, Dan linked to the cupcake story Goldy had posted about in the previous post.

Posted by TVDinner

on December 26, 2011 at 11:15 AM

@2, now you've made me dizzy and I have to go lie down. I was going to anyway, but you've given me a reason.

Posted by gloomy gus on December 26, 2011 at 11:21 AM

Gus @1: It may come to as a surprise to you, but we don't necessarily know what the other writers are writing when we write our own stuff. Plus, we each tend to add our own value.

Posted by Goldy on December 26, 2011 at 11:26 AM

"..we each tend to add our own value."

Or not.

Posted by BLUE on December 26, 2011 at 11:33 AM

Goldy, he posted his an hour and a half before you did - you're saying that before typing up this masterpiece you couldn't peek at Slog to see if someone maybe already had the same brilliant idea for a post-Xmas angle? Ah well, I'm just a reader, what do I know about how much work it is to add Goldy value.

Posted by gloomy gus on December 26, 2011 at 11:38 AM

They're just jealous that Line Out might have "more post-X-mas posts" than Slog.

Posted by rob!

on December 26, 2011 at 11:46 AM

Slog is just getting more and more lazy with each passing day...

But really, those Christian Holidays certainly bring out the very BEST in humanity!

Posted by Cato the Younger Younger on December 26, 2011 at 11:47 AM

@6: Yes, I wrote most of that post be I saw Dan's morning news. And considering I'm Slog's "Christmas Jew" today (comparable to a "Shabbas Goy"), fuck if I was going to toss out a perfectly good post, just because Dan linked to some of the same headlines.

Posted by Goldy on December 26, 2011 at 11:50 AM

With a chance of being cruel, it seems like these stories are ordered by potential reader empathy.

I do sympathize with the middle class girl killed in here SUV.

I try to relate to the fire in a 5 bedroom CT beach house, but less so, as things like Saks 5th avenue and other 1% tropes have no more meaning for me.

Of course we assume apartments with shootings in Galveston have something to do with meth labs, again outside my experience.

Then there is the background noise of Tropic Zone warfare. In order of body count, the last should be the most important. But it isn't. No to me.

Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe

on December 26, 2011 at 11:55 AM

@9, fair enough - I can tell you're super sad to have the Slog spotlight to yourself today. And I hadn't thought for a moment it might have taken you such a long time to write this, or that the act of shifting to a fresh angle (or crediting Dan with an earlier take on it) would be such a daunting prospect for you.

In future I promise to try to remember to credit you with all the time and effort you put into bearing down on these. And that past a certain stage there is no going back for you - all you can do is pinch off what you've managed to craft.

Posted by gloomy gus on December 26, 2011 at 12:06 PM

Bailo, they're ordered geographically, from near to far. Trying to read into it anything more, especially with respect to your inhumane lack of empathy, shows what a useless prat you are.

Posted by Dr_Awesome on December 26, 2011 at 1:12 PM

I get the ironic Christmas overlay of the first three. Wrong place, wrong time, dead kids, dead Santas, bad Santa. But if the intent of the church bombers was to specifically target on Christmas, it doesn't seem ironic that "the Christians got killed on Christmas".

re: Reposting. Anyone with literary or journalistic pretensions realizes that regular consumption of Slog is detrimental. I appreciate Goldy's dedication to quality as evidenced by his avoidance of trashy distractions.

Posted by bedipped on December 26, 2011 at 1:57 PM

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