The funny thing is...
Red Nose Day will be upon us again very shortly, and it will again be time to dig deep and make the lives of those less fortunate than you that little bit better.
But could recent events in Asia wipe the smile off the faces of the organizers?
The British public have made their generosity felt in a pretty big way, but that isn't to overlook the generosity of the global community.
But for the likes of Red Nose Day, there could well be the problem of 'compassion fatigue' to overcome, as well as a possible donation short-fall.
I watched one of the trailers for Red Nose Day on BBC2 this evening, and Billy Conelly dealt with the issue of compassion fatigue in a very simplistic and practical way. First of all, it's a shit idea. It's just stupid.
You're no more likely to become tired of compassion than you are of love. When do you hear people moaning about being tired of loving someone?
I get the idea that he would have liked to have been a little more forthright. No doubt in his usual, inimitable style, coloured with a variety of warm expletives.
I think that compassion fatigue is a blousy euphemism for the scourge of our time: apathy & indifference.
So let's hope that when people thrust their hands into their pockets to pull out a tissue or a handkerchief to wipe away the tears of laughter, they pull out some loose change, or maybe even a fiver or two and put it to a good cause...
posted by Wayne Smallman at Tuesday, February 15, 2005
11 Comments:
Agreed that the idea of "compassion fatigue" is just plain stupid. But most people operate on a budget, and they might have already donated more than they could afford. So can you really blame them if they donate less now? It is not because they are suffering from "fatigue"; just that they have already donated what they thought they could do.
Lucretia: Do you mean Connolly can just take your babies, or do you want to have babies with him?!
By the way, what is there to celebrate about the papacy? These folks are sitting on a ton of money, hmm... Jesus must be turning in his grave if he has one. When the pope got shot, one of the cardinals commented: "he is suffering like the Christ". Indeed!
Good point, guys.
The bloody catholics are loaded, and the anglican church aren't all that far behind, either.
Between the church of England and the Ministry of Defense, they own about a fifth of Britain land.
Plus, the church of England own shares in major global defense contractors .. nothing like investing in guaranteed church-fillers like war, is there?
And by way of a wonderfully smooth segue, that brings us to root of most of the problems in central and northern Africa: war and conflict...
Have you guys read the book "Holy Blood, Holy Grail"? Just finished it... a fascinating book.
I caught a program about it a few weeks ago.
It was a discussion of the Grail legend and the recent book, The Davinci Code.
One of the interesting things that emerged was that the Priory of Sion is a fraud, from top to bottom.
The producers of the program dug deep and pulled out a lot of stuff about the people behind it.
However, one of the lingering issues that simply couldn't be reasoned away was the Grail legend itself.
Most people think of the Grail as a simple vessel that carried blood. But what if that is a mere metaphor?
Once you think of it that way, then the vessel that carries the blood of christ could quite easily mean his child.
Intriguing...
One thing people always forget: Bible is not a book in the strict sense of the word, it is a compilation of a lot of texts from a number of sources. This selection of texts was quite ad hoc, and a lot of interesting things exist in the books that were not included/excised/censored over the millennia.
That's also a good point.
There's direct evidence that Mary Magdalene was a very prominent figure in the early days of christianity.
But her role was deprecated and then finally removed by men who felt that there was no place for a woman in the bible.
Now, the image of Mary Magdalene is that of a prostitute, when there is little evidence of her being any such thing.
Probably one of the earliest smear campaigns.
So, it's not hard to see that whole passages of the bible may have been altered to sooth and satiate the sensibilities of the christian elders of the time...
Anyway, how the hell did we get onto religion?!
I really must read back through this thread...
Its Lucretia's fault.. she dragged the church into it, lol :):)..
the gospels dont mention if magdalene was a prostitute.. just that she was 'fallen'. The word was conveniently twisted in later translations.
Wasn't it said that Jesus was the king of Jews?
If so, according to contemporary tradition, only a married man can hold such a position...
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