The glamour subdued me

If you happen to have an iPhone (and I suspect a Droid, as well), and you happen to have the ABC News application, open it up and look closely at the major news headings:



Amid the usual headings ("Top News," "US News," "World News," etc.), you'll notice a newcomer: "Royal Wedding." Royal wedding, with its own dedicated category. At this very moment, the world is experiencing multiple revolutions of suppressed populations; organized labor is facing its biggest trial in ages in the US; wars continue; governments in the US and abroad are faced with the kinds of urgent decisions and value judgments that accompany exponentially growing debts and deficits; countless chronic, seemingly omnipresent global and local problems continue, placing the lives of innocent human beings in the cross-airs of disaster, epidemic, poverty, suffering. You might find these stories after a few clicks in ABC News' "news" application--might--but you certainly will not find a dedicated tab to emphasize its importance to you as a reader. We've planted our flag and have stated our superficial values: we value the glitz and glamour of an anachronistic, gaudy and offensive wedding of two people we will never meet, speak to, or care about, whose lives have no relevance to our own or to the world. We're placing importance on these individuals at the cost of complacency. If ever you have doubted how we allow so many preventable bad things to happen in this world, look no further than ABC News' application. It illustrates it all, and should have you balled up in hysterical laughter were it not for the fact that it's so extremely sad. The next time you find yourself struggling against a perceived injustice, screaming to capture anyone's ear only to find them all deaf, remember your comfortable hours spent being fed fairytales until they felt real and relevant, until the real and relevant stories of sadness, injustice and struggle began to feel fictitious and false.


The movie ran through me
The glamour subdued me
The tabloid untied me
I'm empty please fill me
Mister anchor assure me
That Baghdad is burning
Your voice it is so soothing
That cunning mantra of killing
I need you my witness
To dress this up so bloodless
To numb me and purge me now
Of thoughts of blaming you
-Rage Against the Machine, "Testify"