Why?

There was a bomb explosion on Sunday in Sri Lanka that killed a number of people. So many have been killed in that bloody war and more that I have lost count and cannot afford to care anymore if I am to retain my sanity (at least whatever is left of it). So I heard the news and tried not to process it, especially since so many civilians had died in the blast and they were about to begin a marathon, a reasonably happy occasion you would think.

On Tuesday, I go into work and log onto my email and there was a message with the subject "Sunday's Bomb Blast" in my mail box. I saw the paper clip on it and was a little concerned that it might be pictures, but then I usually don't receive repulsive pictures from that specific sender so I open it, and lo and behold, there are pictures of body parts scattered and 'officials' removing body parts, not bodies. Because that is what happens when bombs go off, you just have to clean up the flesh and blood and all things gory, there are few in tact bodies to remove. And for anyone involved there is little you can do to rid your brain of that smell, the smell of burnt flesh. It stays with you for life. I deleted the email as soon as I had opened it, wishing I had not seen what I had.

But this left me wondering why we take pictures of things like that and circulate it. I know that news organisations do it for the sensationalism. But to email these pictures? There is no "viewer discretion advisory" on these emails and so there is no warning of what is to come. What is it about humans that makes us take some sort of perverse pleasure in viewing pictures like that? I can't help but wish I were not human and can remove myself from all of this madness of killing and exploding and wars...none of them have any rationale whatsoever except in the minds of those killers.