[Air-l] Re: peace

[Ildiko Kaposi]

To Steve's question, another possible and wholly speculative answer could be that perhaps people avoid discussing the war also because they honestly do not see/feel it as having an impact on their lives?

Nancy and others have pointed the finger at the news media for presenting the war in a video game fashion. That could be true (I don't have access to US network news in Hungary), and it would account for making the war an unreal spectacle.

But the persistent fact remains that the war is somewhere far away, and there is no fighting on American soil. There is no geographic immediacy associated with the events, nor is there much doubt about the outcome (has anyone seen articles discussing what happens once Iraq wins?).

That is a pessimistic explanation. The optimistic one would go for the potentially explosive and divisive nature of the events, not something people could bring up in ordinary social conversations for fear of generating political conflict. In this case, the implication would be that people care and are interested.

Anyroad, I can already picture the academic books that'll be published about this war and the media, incl. (or especially) the internet. It's hard to stay a lily in this affair.

Ildiko