Meanwhile, celebrities were cornered and tagged by surveillance cameras, digital cameras, cellphones, voice mails, e-mails, downloaded files and anonymous posts in comments sections. The media echo chamber dutifully printed and broadcast everything straight from the mouths of high-profile violent offenders and felons alike, calling it "news" and thereby convincing other disenfranchised citizens that the best way to get your voice heard is by doing something "newsworthy" in the fine tradition of John Hinkley Jr., Ted "Unabomber" Kaczynski, Mohammed Atta and other celebrated sociopaths, terrorists and misfits. In 2007 more than ever before, newspapers and Web sites and innocent bystanders with camera phones were hungry for a full-blown spectacle, and sensing that the world was their stage, a gaggle of maniacs and attention-seeking outsiders delivered their best performances. When I walked into the bathroom and saw those words, I didn't think, "Oh my God! Who would do such a thing?" I thought, "Wow, Tracy Griffin is going to be in big trouble for this one!" Among the dutiful Catholic students who suspected that God would punish them for merely talking in class, Tracy Griffin stood out like a hungry pit bull at a free-range chicken ranch.īut anonymity is never really the sociopath's goal, least of all now, when the mentally unstable have the media savvy to know how to get their message across, whether they're marching into Hillary Clinton's campaign office with fake explosives taped to their chests or mailing detailed videotaped tomes to the appropriate department at NBC News in order to clarify the nuances of their upcoming suicidal killing spree. When I was in third grade in Catholic school, one of the girls in my class wrote "Fuck You" all over the stalls of the girls' bathroom in red Magic Marker.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |