Saturday, March 15, 2014

The public obsession with the passenger jet that disappeared … by gimleteye

Car crashes, explosions, mayhem: the news depends on them to glue your eyeballs to the screen. One's eyes tend to glaze over. Then something else emerges -- say, a school shooting. A drive-by killing.

When the 24/7 news cycles gets stuck on a single story, take notice for what it says about us.

Prior to the tragic story of the Malaysian jet liner, the news cycle had been more or less peppered -- not jammed -- with stories how governments and corporations are spying on our every move whether we are surfing the web or driving to the 7/11 for a container of cheese.

Edward Snowdon, that twenty-something stuck in a grim Moscow apartment one images, flickers in our attention. Privacy, freedom?

But a passenger jet filled with unsuspecting citizens has to be tracked every step of its journey, anywhere on the planet. Day after day, it is the top news story. Why?

Last summer I took a trip to Greenland on a small private plane. Canada air traffic control clattered with the announcement when we began our crossing of the North Atlantic: you are "now leaving all radar control".

It is hard to disappear these days. Maybe that is part of our fascination with the disappeared jet from Malaysia. It is also hard to trust the government tells us the truth when it comes to tracking our movements.

One's heart breaks at the suffering of the families struck by this tragedy. It turns out that there are digital signals tucked away in satellite hard drives beamed down to national security gathering computers pointing to the flight path of the disappeared jet.

Any time the news cycle is jammed on one story, think what that says about the rest of us.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not here too!!!! I cannot stand it anymore. What those poor families must be going through and every news channel, news cycle, even the Presidents press secretary has a different spin on this.

Eventually, jet will be found and hopefully the passengers whether they perished, which I doubt they have survived whatever happened, and then get to the bottom of what happened.

I am absolutely tuning out anything about this until the jet is found or evidence of the jet is found. I cannot stand all the theories!

Anonymous said...

Look at it this way, it's a real live novela of the TV series LOST !!!

Anonymous said...

Can't we all take some time to follow the Psalmist's directive and that is, "Be still and know that I AM GOD". It would do wonders in humanity's need.

Anonymous said...

I'm with you, Gimleteye. Why doesn't the stupid public realize that the only thing that matters is rising water levels due to the melting of the polar ice caps?

Wake up, sheeple!

Anonymous said...

It has been a week now, very little factual information, mad searches all over the place in every direction. It's looking more and more like aliens to me!

Anonymous said...

It is a fascinating story because many of us have to fly. We travel all over the world, and we could have been on that flight. Every time we get on an airplane, we will think about it particularly if we are in a foreign country.

On the other hand, Snowden is a dead-man walking. None of us, even if we could, would never betray our country by taking our military files and giving them to our enemies. And then joining with the enemy as they expand their boundaries by brute force.

Anonymous said...

Global warming and polar ice caps aside, the issue of fake passports is an interesting one. Also, until the mystery is solved, the issue of potential hijacking cannot be answered and that absolutely is an important issue. Now, I wish we'd get a little more coverage on whats going on in Eastern Europe and how we got there and how the hell we will deal (or not deal) with that. Also, how about the whole President getting a little too imperialistic thingy. I'd like to hear more about that....crickets.

Anonymous said...

Well, Bush and crew was responsible for the deaths of 180,000 people in the Iraq war. We are talking about the potential of a lot of people dying here in a major conflict. I want Obama to exhaust every possibility, try every diplomatic opportunity, every strategy they deem workable to resolve the issue. One thing of the many things I like about Obama is that he is not a hothead, he will move in a deliberative manner which is how he solves problems. I have real problems with many of those belligerent bellicose republicans. Thank goodness none of them are the leader of the free world.

Anonymous said...

The republicans need to stop running for office and begin to serve the country. We need them to serve as lawmakers now. The President has asked them for $1 billion dollars to deal with the situation and they need to be about the business of finding it for him. In order to be a good leader, you have to be a good follower.

Anonymous said...

Every time the nation needs critical action to move things, the women in Congress both Democratic and Republican have to join together to lead and do the heavylifting for the country. Why should this be any different? If they don't do it, the President won't get the money.

Anonymous said...

I don't like that we cancelled missile bases in Czek Republic and Polland. I don't like the theories about hegemony and wonder if that is what is going on. Don't get me wrong, its tough work if you can get it, but this "chess" game is not working out. Will history reflect that the President screwed this up big time as smaller countries like Latvia and Lithuania fall under the web of a re-emerging Soviet state. This thing has gotten way ahead of us and, of course, if Putin is going to act, he's going to do so when we are showing weakness. The blame for that is a stain on both parties, let's be honest. We are weak economically, but the supply side economic snake has turned around and bitten us on the backside and our debt is not going down fast enough. Where goods pass borders soldiers do not? Go tell China to heed that warning as you call the oil boys to step up oil production and export to Europe. Grow a pair, Mr. President. It's time to stop being so gallant. You can save that for your book signing tour after you're gig is up, but its on you now. My prayers are with you.

Anonymous said...

I am just curious Anon above. Are you ready to put on a uniform and go over there to put your life on the line for them? Your son or daughter? Your grandson or grand daughter?

Anonymous said...

We might be destroyed economically but that does not necessarily mean that we cannot carry out a war and win. Look at how our economy was leading up to WWII and we prevailed. I am not saying that we should go to war but if we do the current condition of our economy will probably not hamper of war efforts by much.

Anonymous said...

It is not the economy. it is our very existence. We live in a period of nuclear weapons and detente. No one in their right mind wants to go down the path that could lead to all of us being blown to smithereens.