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Gabriel Wortman. Brenton Tarrant. Marc Lépine. Voldemort.
For some, the mere utterance of these names is an act of unspeakable violence. For me, that attitude is a load of superstitious and even dangerous nonsense. Magical thinking at its worst.
Justin Trudeau is the latest leader to urge media restraint in publishing the name or photograph of a mass killer, but he's certainly not the only one. Here is a Global News analysis of the issue:
https://globalnews.ca/news/6841959/nova-scotia-shooting-naming-shooter-trudeau/
What happened in Portapique Nova Scotia this past weekend was literally a tragedy of pandemic proportions. It deserves to be reported with an appropriate degree of accuracy and solemnity, while respecting the privacy and the needs of the victims' families, friends and community to grieve in their own ways and celebrate the lives of those they have lost. During a pandemic lockdown, that's challenging but I would hope, not impossible.
Sensitive editorial policy is important but so is freedom of the press. There's often a fine line between restraint and censorship.
To suggest that those who go on killing rampages be relegated to the ranks of them-who-must-not-be-named is quite simply to deny reality. It's kind of like taking the "strong" form of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and perverting it to the point of absurdity. If we don't name someone or mention a specific event, then clearly they have never even existed or happened!
Gosh, wouldn't it be great if we just stopped talking about Covid-19? Or naming ANY viruses or diseases? That way, we could wipe them right off the face of the planet!!
I'm quite uncomfortable with the whole "no notoriety" movement, although I'm sure proponents of it would not go as far as I may have implied. See for yourself:
https://nonotoriety.com
To be fair, I think we all have superstitious moments and moments when we have to fight the temptation to live in a state of denial. You know the sort of thing: I won't get that lump looked at, because what if it's cancer? Or even when there may be a happy result: I won't admit that I think I did well on that exam because supposing I jinx myself? We humans are indeed a bewildering mixture of the rational and the irrational. But once we've taken a few minutes to wallow in our irrational and often uncharitable impulses, we need to be able to take a step back and look at things from a levelheaded perspective before we boldly go where angels fear to tread!
Talk about 2020 hindsight. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World War Two. I look outside and there are tulips in the front garden.
Lest we forget?
For some, the mere utterance of these names is an act of unspeakable violence. For me, that attitude is a load of superstitious and even dangerous nonsense. Magical thinking at its worst.
Justin Trudeau is the latest leader to urge media restraint in publishing the name or photograph of a mass killer, but he's certainly not the only one. Here is a Global News analysis of the issue:
https://globalnews.ca/news/6841959/nova-scotia-shooting-naming-shooter-trudeau/
What happened in Portapique Nova Scotia this past weekend was literally a tragedy of pandemic proportions. It deserves to be reported with an appropriate degree of accuracy and solemnity, while respecting the privacy and the needs of the victims' families, friends and community to grieve in their own ways and celebrate the lives of those they have lost. During a pandemic lockdown, that's challenging but I would hope, not impossible.
Sensitive editorial policy is important but so is freedom of the press. There's often a fine line between restraint and censorship.
To suggest that those who go on killing rampages be relegated to the ranks of them-who-must-not-be-named is quite simply to deny reality. It's kind of like taking the "strong" form of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and perverting it to the point of absurdity. If we don't name someone or mention a specific event, then clearly they have never even existed or happened!
Gosh, wouldn't it be great if we just stopped talking about Covid-19? Or naming ANY viruses or diseases? That way, we could wipe them right off the face of the planet!!
I'm quite uncomfortable with the whole "no notoriety" movement, although I'm sure proponents of it would not go as far as I may have implied. See for yourself:
https://nonotoriety.com
To be fair, I think we all have superstitious moments and moments when we have to fight the temptation to live in a state of denial. You know the sort of thing: I won't get that lump looked at, because what if it's cancer? Or even when there may be a happy result: I won't admit that I think I did well on that exam because supposing I jinx myself? We humans are indeed a bewildering mixture of the rational and the irrational. But once we've taken a few minutes to wallow in our irrational and often uncharitable impulses, we need to be able to take a step back and look at things from a levelheaded perspective before we boldly go where angels fear to tread!
Talk about 2020 hindsight. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World War Two. I look outside and there are tulips in the front garden.
Lest we forget?
