public policing
Saturday, January 24, 2009 (10:09 PM)
i'm getting quite disturbed by singapore's #1 citizen journalism site stomp. unlike what its facade projects, it is more than just a citizen journalism site. it's sort of like a neighbourhood watch thing. a kind of public policing. on top of that, it makes me feel like a prisoner in the panopticon. someone is watching you sometime somewhere. every little thing you do. but you will never know who, when or where.
it's kind of running our lives and potentially ruining it. a picture can speak a thousand words. but no one ever reminded us that those thousand words may not necessarily be true. like the picture pulitzer prize winner, eddie adams, took of general, nguyen ngoc loan, executing a vietcong prisoner in saigon, it destroyed the general's and his family's lives. the thousand words that the picture spoke was of a cruel and merciless general indiscriminately and ruthlessly killing an innocent victim. this picture irreparably destroyed the general's honour who had to live in verbal abuse and criticism from the public.
in actual fact, general loan upheld his integrity by killing his fellow vietnamese who killed a few americans. i'd rather choose the word murder.
in spite of that, i enjoy visiting the site and i believe it is due to our sick fetish with voyeurism. like i've always said, human is a voyeuristic species. or perhaps i'm just a paranoid and insecure being constantly checking to see if i got on candid camera.