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From: ross@smeagol.UUCP (Gary Ross)
Newsgroups: net.jokes.d
Subject: Re: Perspective
Message-ID: <613@smeagol.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 21-Feb-86 15:10:25 EST
Article-I.D.: smeagol.613
Posted: Fri Feb 21 15:10:25 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 24-Feb-86 21:37:42 EST
References: <1814@trwrba.UUCP> <11862@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <712@amiga.amiga.UUCP>
Organization: Spacecraft Data Systems, JPL, Pasadena, CA
Lines: 45

> In article <11862@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> weemba@brahms.UUCP (Matthew P. Wiener) writes:
> >In article <1814@trwrba.UUCP> suhre@trwrba.UUCP (Maurice E. Suhre) writes:
> >>I've been watching the shuttle jokes/debates going past and I think there
> >>is a certain lack of perspective.  Just ask yourself the following
> >>questions (and estimate the answers).
> >>	1.  How many people die every day on the freeways/hiways
> >>	2.  How many teenagers die of drug overdose every day?
> >>	3.  How many women die as a result of illegal abortions?
> >>	4.  How many people die in Shuttle accidents every day?
> >
> >I think Maurice here has a lack of perspective.  I know of no one who has
> >died of deaths type 1,2,3 in the past month.  I know of 7 people who died
> >in a Shuttle accident.
> 
> I think Matthew betrays an all-too-popular lack of perspective here. He says
> he knows of no one has has died recently in a traffic accident, yet is of
> course familiar with the story of the shuttle victims. Why would that be ?
> Exposure to the news of these events. The media manipulates our awareness
> of world events in ways that "make good copy" and boost their ratings.
> Generally, these lack perspective and morality. Maurice's comment are es-
> pecially relevant in this case. The shuttle tragedy is seven people dying
> in an experimental accident. All the flagwaving and press releases try to 
> make it into something else, to tug at our heartstrings and attention.
>   Is any good accomplished by this unfortunate, insincere media spectacle ?
> I don't think so; rather it dulls one to the "everyday, humdrum" tragedies 
> that occur more regularly. Lock the doors and turn on the news program.
> 
>   "An emotional show, or a show of emotions?" Gerald Nachmann.

	The reason that the Challenger explosion is such a major media event
is not because seven people died but because the space shuttle exploded.
It may be cruel to say that the loss of the space shuttle means more than
the loss of seven lives, but as has been pointed out that people die every day.
What strikes at our hearts and captures the media attention is the fact that
the space shuttle represented the hopes and dreams for the future of all mankind.
So while the loss of seven astronauts is tragic, it really is no less tragic
than the deaths of all those people who die on the freeway or of drug overdoses,
it happens.  The destruction of a symbol of the hopes and dreams of mankind is a
tragedy which everybody feels.
-- 

	Gary Ross
	JPL Spacecraft Data Systems group
	sdcrdcf!smeagol!ross (UUCP)
	ia-sun2!smeagol!ross@csvax.caltech.edu (ARPA)