People are funny. They never cease to amuse me. Today's stupidity comes in the form of some heretofore unheard of Italian magazine (that's probably unfair, as I've never read any Italian magazines, and somehow simply assumed none existed until this morning) decided to make insane amounts of money through the publication of an as yet unseen photograph. I say it is unseen, because the media have been sitting on it in a rare act of sympathy and sensitivity that only one individual in the entire history of the United Kingdom seems to have been able to stir.

The picture is apparently of the late Princess Diana.

Dying.

Now, far be it from me to judge, but there seems to be something inherently morbid about the concept of wanting to see this photo. I admit I'm curious, but only because it'd be nice to see her without, for once, being optimised for photogenic media exposure. Beyond that grim desire to see her off her damned pedestal, I personally do not care a whit for this image. The hilarious part is that pretty much everyone else does. They all want to see it, and they are all appalled that someone has published it. This magazine - called Chi brilliantly enough - has unwittingly brought about the crux of society's dilemma. Outraged that the picture is available, people will flock to see it, if only because they've been asked not to, simply so that they can be offended by the magazine's decision to make it available.

The sheer degree of irony will probably never be apparent to these people even as they gasp in horrified grief at their fallen Princess, and as they gather their rage and take up their pitchforks, they will utterly fail to understand the fundamental validity of the magazine's decision to publish the picture. Give the people what they want; and the people want to see this picture so badly they'll fall over themselves to make it available. What odds on the words 'Diana crash pic' being top of Google's search list by the end of the weekend? And what price for a plethora of pictures giving the people what they're looking for at the other end of that click?

The fact that people are stupid enough to go actively looking for something that they know will offend them, and then rage against those that made it available to them once they find it can be applied to more than just this, but I won't go into that right now. I'm just smiling inside at the thought of a photographer leaning down over Diana's expiring shell, fat camera held up for a shot, with one of those over-sized flash things looming toward her. I imagine him whispering something triumphant as he depresses the button and the world flashes across her dying face. "We have a winner".

0 message(s) of denial

---