Planetarium - politics/music/culture/smarts

There are two interesting things at work in the representation of the destruction of New Orleans, both in the media and in people's day-to-day discussions of the event. Let's go ahead and point out the obvious point first: the fact that every single person we've discussed the disaster with, especially in the midst of it, would say "Man, this is upsetting, crazy, and kind of cool!" Not the loss of life, of course, but the acheivement of the fantastic: the obliteration of a major American city, and a direct reveal of America as a functioning Third World country, for all intents and purposes. That being said, there's something so unsettling about the game of who-can-find-the-most-disturbing-picture that's being played by progressive news sites all over the country. Leaving aside the same clear point that Baudrillard made after 9/11- namely, that the reason it wielded such tremedous cultural sway is the fact that, deep down, people secretly wanted it to happen- in all honesty, the way that the leftist newsies are fetishizing images of misery and horror is no less creepy than religious nutbags waving around images of aborted fetuses. The hunger for this sort of suffering connects deeply with big traditional American beliefs, especially Christian ones- you have go through trials of suffering every now and then, and somehow the fact that you weren't in New Orleans is proof of some affiliation to a club of self-improvement, so on and so forth. There are many more, which you should feel free to point out here.