Airline employees made video news again over the weekend. This time it was American Airlines. I didn't see the video of what happened nor did I read the particulars other than an airline employee yanked on a stroller and almost struck a baby in the process. The owner of the stroller and baby's mother was in tears, and a male passenger confronted the airline attendant which almost resulted in a physical altercation. Forgive me please for not paying more attention to exactly what happened for my mind concentrated on what was yet another smart phone video that made news.
Fifty years ago this incident would not have made the local news but today it seems that our iPhones are always at the ready to record someone making a fool of themselves, and we are happy to share that with the world. Were there any extenuating circumstances in this incident on American Airlines? Who cares? Time doesn't permit fairness and objectivity in a viral video world. Are there exceptions to personal video news stories such as this? Of course there are as there have been actual heroes taking videos.
This morning a minister in our service was in the middle of a prayer from the pulpit when the siren of an ambulance was evident behind him coming from the his right and then passing off to his left. His prayer stopped as the siren increased and then decreased. Was he just waiting for the noise to stop before continuing with his prayer or was he praying silently for someone outside of our church that was obviously in serious need of assistance. I believe that it was probably the latter, for that was what I was doing, and I'm sure that many in the church were doing the same thing. Someone.... somewhere.... somehow..... was in trouble and in need of emergency assistance.
These are two competing responses in today's world to an incident or an emergency. I am very confident in that while in both of these recent chaotic airline incidents with shouts and crying all around, and cameras recording what was happening, that there were also passengers in deep and earnest prayer. I know that this is the case, for I know my brothers and sisters in Christ. Our memory precedes our compassion, for at one time we were that person in need .....and therefore we now pray for others in their time of need.
Videos are instant recall presented in real time.....but they possess no memory before or after operation of the shutter....and that is the real issue.....and it is not new.....it's a variation of worshipping the image which requires much less from our mental processes than the written word.
Content creation has moved swiftly into the digital world. These posts of mine are content creation. The Federalist Papers were content creation. The Communist Manifesto and the Humanist Manifesto were content creation. Content creation can contain truth and lies and a mixture of both.
The quintessential example, in my opinion, of how an image by itself can do great harm would be the Pulitzer Prize winning photo of a Saigon police chief summarily executing a Viet Cong insurgent in February of 1968. This Viet Cong captain who appeared to be just a scared young man had hours earlier, along with his unit of saboteurs, captured a South Vietnamese Lieutenant Colonial and his wife, six children and his mother. He demanded that the officer teach him how to drive the tanks they had captured in the attack. The South Vietnamese officer refused and he and his family were then murdered by cutting their throats. Of course none of this information came with the photo which greatly hurt America's efforts to defend this nation against communist assault and it aided our enemies in their future attacks on our own military. The photographer has long since realized this and regretted what his photo had done to our efforts in Vietnam and to the South Vietnamese chief of national police who was harangued in America for the rest of his life.
The image has taken over from the word and Facebook is part of this assault. Is Twitter the word or and image? I submit to you that it is more image. Donald Trump's incessant tweets bolster an image and do nothing to generate thought. The image of today's pastor in the pulpit has diminished the words that emanate from that pulpit. Contrary to this, conservative talk radio is the spoken word and that is why it has been so effective in disseminating facts and truth although it can at times be nothing more than repetitious cheers as if at a pep rally.
Our conversations today show the effects of a word diminished culture. An extended vocabulary only gets in the way of a quick text. In politics the sound bite and talking point have limited genuine debate. Platitudes often dominate Christian conversation and even doctrine. The law has become an assortment of loopholes in no need of discerning right and wrong. Elementary education has become the succession of one failed visualized fad after another. Even televised sports has had to resort to camera techniques that alter reality and perception to keep up with the constant need for something new in the age of the image.
Fifty years ago this incident would not have made the local news but today it seems that our iPhones are always at the ready to record someone making a fool of themselves, and we are happy to share that with the world. Were there any extenuating circumstances in this incident on American Airlines? Who cares? Time doesn't permit fairness and objectivity in a viral video world. Are there exceptions to personal video news stories such as this? Of course there are as there have been actual heroes taking videos.
This morning a minister in our service was in the middle of a prayer from the pulpit when the siren of an ambulance was evident behind him coming from the his right and then passing off to his left. His prayer stopped as the siren increased and then decreased. Was he just waiting for the noise to stop before continuing with his prayer or was he praying silently for someone outside of our church that was obviously in serious need of assistance. I believe that it was probably the latter, for that was what I was doing, and I'm sure that many in the church were doing the same thing. Someone.... somewhere.... somehow..... was in trouble and in need of emergency assistance.
These are two competing responses in today's world to an incident or an emergency. I am very confident in that while in both of these recent chaotic airline incidents with shouts and crying all around, and cameras recording what was happening, that there were also passengers in deep and earnest prayer. I know that this is the case, for I know my brothers and sisters in Christ. Our memory precedes our compassion, for at one time we were that person in need .....and therefore we now pray for others in their time of need.
Videos are instant recall presented in real time.....but they possess no memory before or after operation of the shutter....and that is the real issue.....and it is not new.....it's a variation of worshipping the image which requires much less from our mental processes than the written word.
Content creation has moved swiftly into the digital world. These posts of mine are content creation. The Federalist Papers were content creation. The Communist Manifesto and the Humanist Manifesto were content creation. Content creation can contain truth and lies and a mixture of both.
The quintessential example, in my opinion, of how an image by itself can do great harm would be the Pulitzer Prize winning photo of a Saigon police chief summarily executing a Viet Cong insurgent in February of 1968. This Viet Cong captain who appeared to be just a scared young man had hours earlier, along with his unit of saboteurs, captured a South Vietnamese Lieutenant Colonial and his wife, six children and his mother. He demanded that the officer teach him how to drive the tanks they had captured in the attack. The South Vietnamese officer refused and he and his family were then murdered by cutting their throats. Of course none of this information came with the photo which greatly hurt America's efforts to defend this nation against communist assault and it aided our enemies in their future attacks on our own military. The photographer has long since realized this and regretted what his photo had done to our efforts in Vietnam and to the South Vietnamese chief of national police who was harangued in America for the rest of his life.
The image has taken over from the word and Facebook is part of this assault. Is Twitter the word or and image? I submit to you that it is more image. Donald Trump's incessant tweets bolster an image and do nothing to generate thought. The image of today's pastor in the pulpit has diminished the words that emanate from that pulpit. Contrary to this, conservative talk radio is the spoken word and that is why it has been so effective in disseminating facts and truth although it can at times be nothing more than repetitious cheers as if at a pep rally.
Our conversations today show the effects of a word diminished culture. An extended vocabulary only gets in the way of a quick text. In politics the sound bite and talking point have limited genuine debate. Platitudes often dominate Christian conversation and even doctrine. The law has become an assortment of loopholes in no need of discerning right and wrong. Elementary education has become the succession of one failed visualized fad after another. Even televised sports has had to resort to camera techniques that alter reality and perception to keep up with the constant need for something new in the age of the image.
