Do National Tragedies Affect You?

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Admit that unless a tragedy directly affects me I don't much care.

Pretty much my p.o.v.
09/11/01 (as it was unfolding on tv) didn't bother me beyond the political & civil repercussions I knew would follow.
The likelier it seems that something could befall me (to extent I'm aware of it), the more I'm likely to feel upset, to worry that I'm vulnerable. Have appetite for disasters, not that I want bad things to happen-but that since they do happen (and it's not my fault) I might as well enjoy watching footage of intense weather or collapsing building. It's interesting for me to watch when things go wrong & I am a bit morbid, but I don't enjoy violence nor can I handle gruesomeness.
Feel bad in a vague mild way for the suffering of people (and much more so for animals) in general, esp. if result/outcome seems unfair & unnecessary. Can imagine that reminders of that day (9/11) would be torment for those who feel/felt close to it, geographically, emotionally, or through harm that came to loved ones-and am thankful I'm not in that group.

I'm like the only person in my little group of friends (in person and online) very disturbed and traumatized by 9/11. Maybe one of the few AS or autistic individuals who were devastated. And I live in KY, know nobody involved with the tragedy personally.

Honestly, the reason for my trauma I think has more to do with my tendency to experience most things as a meaningful metaphorical or symbolic event. I was in class, and I was watching the live broadcast when the second tower fell. Yes, the extensive loss of life was tragic; but an iconic symbol crumbling to dust, and then the empty place where once it stood... it disturbed me. I felt like much more had been lost than a building and lots of lives.

I think, in some ways, it punched me in the gut with the reality of impermanence. That nothing can last forever. "I am Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair." (I can't remember the exact wording) and all that remains is rubble.

I believe that my reaction to 9/11 is because of this greater symbolism because I am also deeply troubled by the Titanic, Pompeii, wildfires and anything else that actually changes the face of our concept of the world.

...I am the only Star Wars geek I know who actually gets teary-eyed and depressed when Alderaan explodes. My friends would subject me to relentless teasing if they hadn't already learned that I have no compunctions about smacks upside the head.

Oh, what a relief to see people saying exactly what I feel!

Exactly how I felt. I was upset at the time, because of the sheer enormity of it - I was worried about what it might all develop into and how it might directly affect my family - but as several posters on here have said, it's happened. People die. Let's move on, please.

nope. its all the medias fault for making people feel that way i think, that or i just generally dont care about trageties. who knows

Last edited by richardbenson on 12 Sep 2007, 9:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I feel bad for all the families that lost loved ones, in 9-11, etc, but no more than I feel for the families of people who starve to death in Africa, or lose loved one's in Iraq. There seems to be a need to selectively mourn over certain tragedies. We seem to especially like one's that are particularly random, gruesome or involve attractive or famous people.

Last edited by bobert on 13 Sep 2007, 9:36 am, edited 1 time in total.

I am a Miami and Virginia alum, so I hate VT with a deep-seeded passion. I enjoyed their demise as well. I was ostracized at work when we were supposed to wear VT stuff the Friday after the shootings. I was like, "No way in hell!" That would be sacreligious to my schools. I wore Miami stuff and some people got offended. Ironically, it was Miami that was the first school to compete on their campus afterwards, in baseball, and they presented a large check for the victims. I'm sick of seeing all of the ribbons and othe reminders. I don't like being reminded of disgusting stuff like this.

I've got zero empathy.

I don’t really do “ceremonial” mourning. I don’t get how people are supposed to feel sad at a certain time and then go back to their normal lives. For me true sadness/mourning isn’t something I can experience at my convenience. I can pay respect to the dead, but to me this is more intellectual than emotional. It’s only emotional when it’s someone very close to me.

I was disturbed by the attacks of 9/11, but it wasn’t because people died. People all over the world die all the time. What was deeply disturbing to me was the mindset behind it. To me the attacks symbolized the mindset of ridiculous fanatical religion, blind sectarianism, and hatred.

I found 9/11 fascinating at the time and I still do. I can't say I was particularly bothered by the loss of life however. I know better then to tell most people this of course. I don't really feel empathy towards anyone, not my friends or family so why would strangers dying bother me?

Frankly I'm sick of hearing the phrase "nine-eleven" too. Yeah, it sucked big time. And I hate that we're still at war, mostly because my fiance is in the military. But come on: this sort of thing happens all around the world, all the time. It's horrible every time, but Americans only seem to truly value the lives of other Americans. This is probably the only country in the world that would still be freaking out after six years, because Americans consider war to be something that happens in other countries, and that we will always have the choice to join in or not. An attack on us? Inconcieveable! I recently watched a documentary on the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki... now that made me cry. I do feel sympathy (I think) for those who died/lost loved ones, but my sympathy extends world-wide, not just to the *sigh* victims of 9-11.

I dunno. Most stuff I don't think much about. The natural disasters and such. I think, well, tsunamis suck but they happen. Hurricanes are horrible, but it's part of the cycle of the planet. Earthquakes are just a part of how it all works. But 9-11 really got to me. When things happen that are not natural and there is such injustice in it, I really have trouble making peace with it. The Halocaust, Hiroshima...things like that. It's just wrong, so wrong. Recently I watched The Diary of Anne Frank and I was moved to tears more than once, and I'm not prone to eye leakage. I think people need to mourn together to make some sense of it, to find a way to move forward, to find a "place" for their own feelings.

I think also it is common for people to fear meaning nothing and being forgotten. Remembering those lost eases that fear of being forgotten themselves. If that makes sense.

That said, everyone deals with things differently. There's no wrong or right way to feel about it. Lacking some deep emotional reaction doesn't make you sick, ****ed up or heartless. It makes you...you. Lacking empathy is part of the autistic spectrum, no? Even NTs aren't immune to feeling the same way.

Absolutely, totally makes sense to me-I can't deny being real attached to being alive (despite depressive spells & rageful moods to the contrary). Don't believe in greater or universal "meaning" to lives in general, yet I'm hugely sentimental about self (and all the things in my life that are personally quite meaningful).
Can imagine that others feel this way about each of their own lives-I think people are going to have different perspectives based on whether it's (disaster, harm, or death) happening to oneself or to another. Suffering does completely freak me out, am intolerant of & overreactive to my own pain-can't handle torture & torment happening to anyone.
My emotions & opinions are ambivalent & contradictory but the range I experience & express is genuine. Feel both extremes of uncaring detachment and also vicarious identification/projection/transference (empathy or sympathy).

All of these national tragedies have me much more annoyed rather than sad. Sure it's not good that it happened and all, but I'm sick of hearing about it everywhere I turned. And none of these things have ever affected anyone I knew anyway. I know I'm supposed to be sad and show remorse for these people, but it's hard to when you could just care less about it all.

They don't effect me either. When 9/11 happened I was just in awe at the genius of it.
When people I know have died it has been the same. I just think, "Oh. Ok." It's like I'm thinking that getting upset about it isn't going to bring them back so there isn't much point.
My closest relatives are all still alive so I don't know how I'll react to that when they die. I hope I don't find out for a long time.
However, I'm still grieving for my dog who died many years ago and I feel like crying if I see a bird with a broken wing.

It does bother me that I'm like this. I feel guilty about it. It's not that I don't care, I just don't seem able to react how others think I should.

No. Personal tragedies don't even affect me.

The death of one is a tragedy, the death of a million is just a statistic. A few people died in Challenger and the world cried, thousands die in car accidents and no one besides family cares.