Since the early news reports of the Boston Marathon bombing, we have been glued to the television and obsessively checking social media in an effect to engage with and nurse our collective shock and unease. Intellectually, we know that the three deaths of yesterday are blips on the radar screen when compared to daily occurrences in places like Damascus or Baghdad, but we can't shake the feeling that something very grave is occurring right here and right now. So why is it that the 'here' matters more to us than the 'there'?
Blame evolution. When violence or trauma occurs in a way that is immediately personalizable, we experience an innate emotional reaction that can be traced back to our primate ancestors and pre-dates the recently evolved human capacity for abstract reasoning. These alarmlike reactions allowed us to band together for survival and regulate forms of interpersonal violence on a very basic level. This same reasoning explains why we give x dollars to one sick child whose smiling face we see on television, when we could give a fraction of that to a poverty alleviation organization in India and prolong the lives of 50 children.
Yesterday's events are an unspeakable tragedy perpetuated by terrorists whose targets cut a broad swatch of culture, religion and nation. They occurred in our backyard, in a city well known by most Americans, and their coverage has dominated the media outlets most familiar to us. The faces and terror of these identifiable and relatable individuals produce a personal emotional response that yesterday's other news reporting a coordinated attack by insurgents in Iraq that killed at least 33 just doesn't.
Yet I think it is important to understand why this is and where it is coming from, and to work hard to balance our immediate emotional response with a sense of global perspective.
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