Blog #36 - Hypothetical situation

                It is incredibly hard to come up with a hypothetical scenario of something that happens all the time in a myriad of forms.  Could I say “Well, imagine that some country in Africa is constantly perpetuating genocide of innocent people, and hardly anybody pays much attention to it?”  No, because that’s not hypothetical, that’s the truth.  Could I say “Imagine that thousands of people died in a natural disaster, but people are more concerned about the price of gas, as evidenced by the more news articles relating to it?”  I cannot do that either, because that is the truth as well.  I cannot go with an exaggerated scenario either, because people do overcome their apathy after a certain point.  I don’t think using a hypothetical situation would be useful in a paper for more suited to the prolific tragedies introduced by reality.  But for the sake of the blog, I shall try.

                For a time, let’s imagine that Russia has several more Chernobyl-like accidents, and is essentially wiped off the map of the globe, along with most of its inhabitants.  The resulting radiation has the potential to spread to America (this may or may not be scientifically correct, but it’s all for a point), and could endanger our water supply slightly.  Which do you think people would be more concerned about, the millions of lives lost in Russia, or the small threat posed to themselves?  If there was no threat, people would be more likely to care, although only maybe, but even the smallest hint that something could endanger them, and people instantly start ignoring the outside world to focus on their own safety.  In this sense, we see how truly little people care about the lives of millions of people who they hold almost no relation to.