What's that smell?

America is obsessed with death... let be more specific.
America is obsessed with the WHIFF of death.

The oldest man in the world, the last WWI survivor died the other day at 113. Walter Cronkite.... don't even get me started on Michael Jackson in the news.
Still don't believe me? How do you explain all the NEAR plane crashes in the news. The ones where the pilot does their job and lands the plane?

What about near car accidents? Wouldn't that be bigger news as it pertains to more people lives? No because the whiff of death is anyone else's but there own. That is a huge no no. It's a vicarious projection of fear. A cathartic release that lets us revel in this obsession from a safe distance.

We watch celebrities and normal people who we make celebrities in the media just living their life so we don't have to focus on ours, so why not watch them die as well.

I think instead of reporting on the death of celebrities and having it overtake EVERY single media outlet to the point that it overshadows EVERYTHING in the world. We make a separate public television station that only does obituaries, not just of celebrities but of everyone. It would be the easiest way to fill 24 hours worth of programming. They would never need to air reruns. And this way when someone dies they flip on DTV instead of any and every news channel fighting for ratings to the detriment of keeping the public informed.

While we are at it I think we should remind everyone daily that they too will die eventually and it will happen at any moment no matter what we do to stop it.
This is not meant to scare the living day lights out of people (pun intended) but rather to liberate them. If you have a finite amount of resources you make the most of it (look at the green movement or the current economic crisis).

People might start living their lives or at least pay attention to those living breathing bags of flesh and bone around them and less to people they will never meet who don't give a crap whether they live or die flickering on the screen in front of them.

Then again we like the smell of others people decay.

Long live schadenfreude!