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4001, 4002, 4003…

Posted by ROBERT STEIN in Media, War.
Mar 25th, 2008 | Comments

Milestones are news–the fifth anniversary, the 4000th death–and news shield us, as any drug does, from the pain of reality. We swallow some words and images about Iraq and turn to newer news–about Hillary and Barack, the economy, March Madness, storms and flooding, the HBO miniseries on John Adams.

“People don’t actually read newspapers,” Marshall McLuhan said half a century ago. “They get into them every morning like a warm bath.”

This week we wash away our consciousness of the continuing dying and killing in the Mideast with soothing words from Bush and Cheney in Washington, John McCain in Baghdad and the muffled sounds of impotent anti-war Democrats.