zizek!

I'm tired of my blogs getting deleted. Microsoft has even turned on me!

When Zizek compared and contrasted the images that bombarded us after 9/11 and those that bombarded us after natrual disasters/horrendous events in third world countries, it made me think seriously. Media never shows gruesome images from 9/11 or other natural disasters in the US, but is all over those occuring elsewhere. We tend to respect the dead and their families; We don't want to plaster images all over TV. However, why don't we have the same respect for those of other countries? And I think it is a little bit of "well, no one HERE is going to know those THERE," but it also completely animalizes the others. They become things instead of people and we remove ourselves from their situation. There is a song by Kimya Dawson where she sings, "we'd have 12/26 tattoed across our foreheads if something this atrocious happened on our coast instead. well, a tragedy's a tragedy no matter where it happens." We have publicized 9/11 and everyone keeps reminding us to REMEMBER.. we as Americans have some highly selective memories.
Another interesting point is when he talks about how on 9/11 "it is not that reality entered our image: the image entered and shattered our reality." We have seen atrocious and gruesome images similar to those of the WTC's collapse, but it was always outside our reality. We have these images and something similar to them happened to play out and reconstruct our reality. I think it is interesting that he says we should have thought, "Where have we already seen the same thing over and over again?" Its not that we can't imagine such an attack its just that these images (for us) live outside of what we think will actually occur. They are the work of television and movies, not the work of actuality.

Kelsey. Zizek.
Kimya Dawson. "12/26." Remember That I Love You.