Are We Robots?

I just finished reading an article in the fake newspaper "The Onion". I know, it's not exactly an entirely reliable source of news, but it is funny, and that's what counts. But what caught me so off-guard was this article right here. Titled "Hey, Wasn't There Some Sort of National Tragedy A Few Months Back?", it brings to light a deeply disturbing and very real aspect of American life. After reading the entire article (which I suggest you do before reading this), I came away with a little twinge in my gut. Was there really a national tragedy a few months ago? What was it? Was it the school shooting? I'm pretty sure the entire nation mourned over that. Then there was the mistreatment of soldiers at the hospitals. That was upsetting. And every month in Iraq is pretty much the deadliest month of the war. This line in particular really got me thinking.

"You'd think the details of something on that level would be burned into my mind forever—burned into the whole collective consciousness of the country, for that matter. Maybe after 9/11, and Katrina, and the war, and everything else that's been happening for the last however-many years, the collective consciousness just doesn't have any room left for new tragedies to be burned into it.

Or maybe I'm just imagining things. That's the problem with the media these days—they fill our heads with so much violence and so many terrible things that you find yourself believing that it's real sometimes."

How terrible to think that the American population can no longer retain memories. Sure, there are some who would say that all tragedies will stay with you, but it's no use to dwell on them. In fact, it's better to just move on from terrible events. But not like this! What we are doing in America today isn't just moving on from a tragedy, we are completely ignoring it as though it never happened! Maybe it is just me who thinks that this is how things currently are. And that's a very real possibility. It could just be me. But you cannot disagree with the simple fact being that there seem to be more and more terrible things occurring in America now than ever before. Or is it just that the media is feeding us unreal pieces of news in order for higher ratings to be achieved? Of course sensationalism is the key to capitalism, but should that come at the cost of our very humanity, turning us into hollow drones who react to things when instructed and ignore what they are told? I guess there is no ultimate answer to this but one that time will tell.