Regarding the Pain of Others - Susan Sontag

Does beauty exist only in the perception of our minds? Is beauty abstract or concrete? Is it wrong to find beauty in the image of another's suffering or demise? The idea that I find some sort of satisfaction in knowing that the image in a wartime photograph is not me disturbs me. Pain and suffering are part of the human experience and have documented in words throughout the history of mankind. Why does the photograph of pain and suffering evoke strong emotions when words don't? It is because the photograph depicts the actual moment and intensity of the pain and suffering. It is as if you are mentally transported to the scene of the crime. Could the images of 9/11 ground zero be considered beautiful. "To acknowledge the beauty of photographs of the World trade Center ruins in the months following the attack seemed frivoulous, sacriligious. The most people dared to say was that the photographs were surreal, a hectic euphemism behind which the disgraced notion of beauty cowered".
Compasssion is at times a luxury that is dangerous to hold to close. One at times feels obligated to be concerned or care and at other times disinterested. All humanity is hinged on the ability to be compassionate and caring. When feelings of compassion arise they should not be discarded but embraced, for without them we wither and die. Photographs can shock and awe. One is drawn to the carnage and can't look away. Feelings of moral ineptness engulf us when we don't look away. We know, we see what man is capable of, and it can shock us. We become fearful of our known capacity to inflict pain on another. Do we accept the fact that we are one of them, or do we cling to the hope that we are different and could never do such a thing. My favorite quote of the book is, "Someone who is perennially surprised that depravity exists, who continues to feel disillusioned (even incredulous) when confronted with evidence of what humans are capable of inflicting in the way of grusome, hands-on cruelities upon other humans, has not reached moral or psychological adulthood. No one after a certain age has the right to this kind of innocence, of superficilaity. to this degree ignorance, or amnesia". Photographs make it impossible to escape the reality of mankinds cruelty. There exists a visual record, it can no longer be ignored. Even as horrible as the images may be, wars will continue to be fought and mankind will inflict pain and suffering on one another.