John Ramsey Miller
I didn’t watch any of the coverage of the Royal Wedding that I could avoid. Not that I don’t appreciate romance or tradition, because both are the glue that holds the world together, but because I thought the idea of being glued to TV to watch two rich kids getting married at the cost of millions of dollars in this day and time is absurd. I understand that the Royals are important to people in the UK and to some of their ex-colonies. Even though diluted English blood runs through my veins, I’ve only been to England once, and have no intention of returning. I thought the coverage of that Royal event was going to last for weeks, maybe months, and the 328 deaths from tornadoes became secondary to a wedding an ocean away. I expected coverage of their honeymoon, perhaps all the way through their first child’s birth. And then our Special Forces whacked bin Laden and the Royal couple was abandoned as though it never happened. How’s that for a plot twist.
So after ten years we stopped the monster with a round or two through his left eye. The most wanted and hated man in the history of America. In all honesty, he probably wasn’t even in the ranks of top twenty mass murderers in the past fifty years. When you put him up against Eichman, Himmler, Hitler, Pol Pot, Mao, Stalin, or even Latvia Beria, he was something of a piker. Well, he was responsible for thousands of deaths of innocent men, women, children. And he’s cost the US 3 trillion dollars in ten years. Because of this one psychopathic, individual, we have been brutalized physically, economically and emotionally. We’ve engaged in two wars resulting in thousands upon thousands of deaths and injuries and immeasurable suffering and spending those trillions of dollars we might otherwise have used for extending our golden age. Glad he’s dead and don’t care to see a picture of him being all dead.
We write a lot about bad people. How many times do we give our killers super-human abilities. Osama bin Lauden proves once again that the worst killers are often the ones with the least amount of actual blood under their nails. It’s like getting rich. You don’t often get rich working a job, you get rich when lots of others do the work and you just direct.
Who is more evil, the killers in the trenches, or those who inspire, give them direction, define their purpose. Who do you think was worse, Hitler, or the groups of mass murderers who did the actual killing?
Writing believable villains is far more challenging than writing good guys. An effective villain has to be complex and self-deceived. A murdering brute can be frightening, but how many can hold a book together the way Hannibal Lector can?
Nothing unifies like fear. Now that the Boogy man is dead, how long do you imagine it will be before we get a new one to take his place?
I believe the new one is already there. Seems there are a whole bunch lined up and ready to claim the title of “Most Wanted.” Great post. Great reflections on the world and what it deems important.
Like Mary said…they’re lining up to claim that title.
We will always have monsters unfortunately. I just hope it doesn’t take 10 years per boogey man to wipe them out.
I’m sure it won’t take very long for the powers that be to slide another face into that “Most Wanted” position, afterall, nothing ignites the American spirit more than a common enemy. And as for last weekend’s Royal Wedding vs. Tornado Victims matchup, I expressed the exact same sentiment as you did via a Facebook post and consequently lost a lifelong friend because of it.
Though she lives in the Southeast, she didn’t agree. It was almost a relief when the news of OBL’s death came along & knocked that wedding off its perch of importance.
I don’t know who the next boogie man is but this is an awesome blog post
Great post! I don’t have cable so I get all of my news from the net. Ironically, Yahoo News did the same thing you described, but they received so many complaints that they pulled the wedding story and started covering the more important stuff (for a couple days anyway).
As far as Osama, I honestly believed he was dead years ago. The fact that he is now doesn’t change much for me personally. I’ve chosen not to live in fear and I’m disappointed that so many of my neighbors have chosen otherwise. I’m disgusted by the loss of freedoms we’ve so readily accepted, especially since freedom is something they don’t give back once you’ve given it up. Anyone who thinks TSA is bad now should brace themselves, ’cause it’s not getting better. It’s worth noting that all of those dictators started out by making their countries ‘safe’ by getting rid of personal firearm rights. In our case what we’ve given up is the right to privacy, but it could go anywhere from there.
I see the Royal Wedding hoopla very differently than everyone else apparently.
Anyone stop to think WHY people might be latching onto that story? Why would people be interested in a story about joy and hope and romance do you think???
We’re only bombarded with news of terrible storms, nuclear meltdown, war, rebels, death, dying and destruction, pretty much every day of the year. And lets not forget all the exciting political sniping that we missed out on. Was it really so terrible that you had to go “below the fold,” to get that news for one day?
Yes, there were more “important” things happening, but I’d venture to say that for most of us here, those things didn’t and won’t impact us any more than the royal wedding did.
Instead of condemning people for not being serious enough, maybe we ought to make a mental note about psychology and remember to break the tension every so often in our books. Yep, even high stakes thrillers, need to give readers a breather every once in awhile. And at least at the end, offer them some hope.
The next boogie man is already out there for sure, but that doesn’t mean that Killzoners have to be Killjoys.
Lisa, grow up. We write what we want here. I am often a killjoy. You are probably a Royalist.
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Sorry to offend. And I apologize if it seemed I was attacking you. I know there was some of that recently. I didn’t mean to make it seem like I was jumping on that bandwagon. Nor was I trying to be holier-than-thou. I just have a different perspective. You had a valid point, John. I just thought I did too.