(Warning: I don't normally do warnings but if you're particularly sensitive you might not want to read this entry. Or read the first paragraph and see if that's enough to give you the willies. It even bugs me a bit and I'm the guy writing it.)
MetaFilter has a massive debate going after someone linked to a YouTube video of a recently released audio tape of a guy in one of the World Trade Centers talking to the 911 dispatcher in his final moments. The audio has been synced against a video of the tower burning and then falling at that exact moment where the audio cuts out.
I haven't watched the clip and I'm not planning to…at least not right now. Maybe someday I will. Not now though. For me, playing the audio against the video clip, though maybe that's “art” or maybe that's a “statement” is a bit too much.
(Actually, I should probably have a warning that even some of the descriptions of the audio by people on that page might be disturbing to some people.)
But at the same time that I'm not going to watch/listen, I'm on the side of the people arguing that this clip should be available to be heard by those who choose to hear it as long as the victim's family has okayed its release (which they apparently have.)
There are all sorts of issues being discussed that are very interesting, even if you don't watch the clip…
– is this a snuff film? Voyeurism of the worst kind? No different than the 6pm news some nights?
– how does it compare against the 10x more deaths of Iraqi civilians? Can it? Should it?
– does being closer to the tragedy by knowing someone or living in New York give you more “right” to it?
– do we even need things like this to remind us of 9/11?
– can this death be linked directly to American imperialism?
(Uhm, except all of these arguments are being made by people who are a lot more coherent, intelligent and/or emotionally involved than I am so just go read the thread. Or watch the clip. Or do either. Or neither.)
Comments 4