Recently, in North America, there have been a series of "cannibalistic attacks." First, a homeless man had his face eaten off. Then there was a report of another man killing and eating (I believe the brain and heart) of a family friend. Apparently there was also a woman who ate a baby. There have also been other strange incidents, one involving a suicidal man ripping out his own small intestine and throwing it at police officers. My brothers have also tried convincing me something happened regarding eyeballs being eaten, but I've yet to see anything in print about it, so for now I'll leave that one be.
Since our society is grossly obsessed with zombies, there have been many articles popping up online stating that the apocalypse is upon us, and that we better get our shit ready to fight. Because everything we learned from playing Left 4 Dead will actually save our sorry asses.
However, there have been others stating that civilization is taking a backwards spin and reverting back to savage behaviour by practicing cannibalism.
Now, the point of my explaining all this is because some ill-informed writer for Time wrote an article that really pissed me off.
You can see it here: http://ideas.time.com/2012/06/07/are-we-too-comfortable-with-cannibalism/?iid=op-main-lede
Her headline, to me, implies that we just love seeing other humans eat each other. Because, you know, I wake up everyday thinking "GOD my roommate looks delicious." She then goes on to question the CDC's announcement that there is no zombie apocalypse because in her mind, a few over-the-top incidents mean the undead are rising. The rest of her article just reiterates old stories of cannibalism and how Victorians felt it was "uncivilized" and gross (which it totally is). She ends by saying, once again, that we love it and see it all as a joke.
Well I beg to differ. When these events unfolded, I did not meet a single person who laughed. There were no outbursts of "OH SHIT, ZOMBIES ARE COMING GUYS, THIS IS SO COOL!" In fact, most of my friends were seriously concerned about the mental well-being of the attackers, not to mention the physical state of the victims. Not for a single second did anyone I spoke to (which happened to be a lot) think that these poor people woke up one day thinking "I want human flesh for breakfast." No. It not only worried them, but made them sick to their stomachs. No one saw this as a game. And no, I will not deny all the sick people who did see it as entertaining, but I'd like to think that's only because my friends are more enlightened than people who still live in their parents basement.
But what really baffles me about this article is how ignorant the author is to one vital piece of information regarding these attacks: bath salts. The article, which was published yesterday, came out well after the reasoning behind the attacks were explained. The attackers, surprise, were NOT self-proclaimed cannibals, but people on drugs. Bath salts, which are apparently all the rage now, made them eat people. They did not make themselves eat people. This is not a case of society reverting back to "savage times" but a case of substance abuse going too far.
What this author has done is taken the unfortunate case of 3-4 people and used them as an example for the entire planet. According to her, because a few people ate a few other people, society is now totally cool with the idea of cannibalism, and sees it as a form of entertainment. Well, no, that's not fucking true. The majority of viewers were appalled and concerned, not laughing or enjoying what they saw. We are NOT comfortable with the idea of eating each other. These were just a few unfortunate events, that were unfortunately blown up through the media.
The only thing this article says about society is how stupid some people can be.
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