Other people's grief -it's pornographic.

Yes, another tangent from Being Human one.

George says this to Mitchell regarding his listening to the aftermath of his (Mitchell's) nasty time.

I got to wondering why he was listening to it. Self flagellation, or EvilMitchell still in there, enjoying the chaos? Oh, for the nice simple days of Buffy when Angel either had a soul or didn't, with appropriate levels of evil occuring. All this uncertainty makes me feel all angsty.

Anyway, then I started thinking about actual humans and their/ our actual response to real, human grief as played out in the world today. Specifically with regard to the reaction to the news of the man who murdered a toddler 17 years ago being put back into prison for breaching his parole.

George is right.

It's emotional pornography.

The shelves and shelves of cryography, national outpourings of grief and or rage, the witch hunting... it's vouyerustic and it's moral vampirism. There is almost a Daily Hate of that which is designated "other." People can't watch the news because it makes them cry. (Srsly? How cruel of the earthquake victims to look all ravaged and hopeless, don't they realise that empathy HURTS?) People post details about the horrific murder of a child, and claim that it isn't salacious, oh no, people need to KNOW. Jezza enjoys daily outpourings of disgust against a snaggle toothed tracksuited underclass, egged on by millions of viewers, all with one single purpose - to feel that they are BETTER THAN THEM. Facebook is covered in badly spelled, insane ramblings of psycho nutjobs, which get thousands of followers who unthinkingly say YES, I am FOR this, therefore I am AGAINST that, and anyway, peeedowls/ rapists/ estate agents/ teachers/ traffic wardens/ whoever has attracted ire this day should be strung up/ knocked down/ killed in unpleasant ways/ sent to live on a desert island and eaten by fire ants.

*breathes.*

I am scared of humans, they are weird.