(urth) This Week in Google Alerts: Home Fires

[Lee Berman]

>Marc Aramini: Futhermore, hasn't WWII taught us that even the most 
>sophisticated, cultured, and enlightened city or country can descend 
>into animalistic barbarism and brutality when the right ideas come into 
>vogue?  Do we really think we are that much more sophisticated on the 
>world level than our grandfathers?  What has changed?  The means of 
>destruction and the the pervasiveness of the media only.
 
Of course I agree that we haven't evolved much as a species in the past
70 years. But I actually think the (usually annoying) pervasiveness of the
media has made a positive difference in terms of reducing global atrocities.
 
The real difference is in the nature of the media, i.e. that it is now far
more visual than it was in the 40's. I find the Abu Graib torture case to be
illustrative. That story came out in the news and nobody really noticed or
raised much of a fuss. Then a few months later the pictures came out. Instant 
worldwide uproar, condemnation and major efforts to prevent a repetition. Such
high quality pictures have an impact that the printed news and b/w grainy photos 
of WWII atrocities didn't have.
 
Most modern nations don't seem to be willing to risk building giant extermination
camps or carpet bombing and nuking millions of civilians to face the instant
global backlash as cell phone images instantly report and broadcast the results.  
Even brutal regimes in Iran and Syria must tread more carefully than in the past 
in reaction to internal rebellion.  Nobody wants to be the next Saddam Hussein or 
Mohamar Ghadaffi.