Regarding the Pain of Others book

Sontag's indictment of pseudo-justice derived from imagery.
Susan Sontag    

"I worry that my own business . . . helps to make this an anxious age of agitated amnesiacs."

Bill Moyers, quoted in Postman. p. 137.

 
   

"a link between the faraway sufferers–seen close-up on the television screen– and the privileged viewer that is simply untrue."

   
"our sympathy proclaims our innocence" To set aside as well as our impotence."  
Susan Sontag
   

Sympathy -- meaning as opposed to empathy

"...it can be-- an inappropriate response."

p. 102.


"To set aside the sympathy we extend to others beset by war and murderous politics for a reflection on how our own privileges are located on the same map as their suffering, and may–in ways we might prefer not to imagine–be linked to their suffering, as the wealth of some may imply the destitution of others is a task...."


A task which the images cannot alone help us to effectively pursue.


pp. 102-103.

Ann Taylor Fleming

Effective discourse described

internet as media analyzed

Ecojustice links to readings

links