Alienation in American Society
I agree that there are three different types of alienation. Man’s alienation from himself, alienation from fellow man and alienation from the world in which he lives.
I don’t necessarily agree with the example related about the photographer. “He is alienated from the situation in which he is involved and, at the same time, alienated from himself,” the article says because, “when he witnesses the agony of a dying man, can only think of taking a picture, it shows the cleavage between prize-seeking photographer and the human being in him.” Just because he took a photograph of the man doesn’t mean he is alienated from the situation. If he were a doctor and could have helped the man and he stopped just to take a photo then I think there would be a problem there. However, since he probably had no way of helping the dying man he used his skill in photography to capture the moment.
The article says how the examples illustrate how far indifference toward others has gone and how alienated the man of our time is. I think the examples about the segregated church and the attack in Kew Gardens shows that people would rather have other people act first than to act themselves. I’m sure everyone who overheard the screams of the victim thought that someone else would call the police therefore they didn’t have to. Is this alienation or just plain laziness or lack of initiative?
great point in the second paragraph. I thought the same thing myself. There’s a movie called War Photographer where the subject of the movie, James Nachtwey, basically says that the people he is photographing understand that this is the only way he can help them. That the photo will go off into the 1st world news media where people will see what is happening and be compelled to change it. It’s a great movie and I highly recommend it. At the same time, the movie shows that Nachtway is highly affected by this – he his divorced, he hardly speaks, rarely smiles. Clearly an example of someone who needs to put distance between himself and the humanity around him in order to prevent his own implosion. Someone who is alienated from humanity, yet wading within it and wanting to do something. Very complicated. Anyway, definitely rent it.
I can certainly agree with your points on the photographer and the Kew Gardens incident as I thought of the same thing, but then I remembered something from Psych 101.
Concering the Kew Gardens incident, there’s a psychological term for that called the “bystander effect,” which is when someone becomes less likely to call for help in an emergency when others are present than when he/she is alone.
Upon some research however, the Kew Garden incident is the most wrongfully cited case of the bystander effect for several reasons. It is more complicated than the Pappenheim article would have you believe, the victim was attacked more than once, once outside her apartment building and once inside. The supposed witnesses had their windows closed on this cold night and the sound of the victim’s screams were recognized only by a few as cries for help. The police were called after the first attack but the calls were not taken in high regard and cast off as a mere domestic quarrel.
The police were called by a witness, Karl Ross. The victim was taken away by an ambulence but died on the way to the hospital. Later, investigators revealed that only 12 witnesses heard or saw some of the attack, and none knew of it’s entirety (not the 38 reported in the Times). Most didn’t know that an attack had taken place, they assumed it was either a couple fighting or a druken group of friends leaving the nearby bar.
The psychological investigation for the “bystander effect” was a result of the Times article. It’s been misconstrued ever since.
I agree with what you are saying about alienation and how the photographer was doing his duty as a citizen in soceity. I have taken many sociology classes and this idea of “isolation” within a society and “individualism” has come up numerous times. I feel that the photographer was not alienating himself but rather becoming apart of this moment . He was taking a dying man and making him almost ” immortal” because his image would last forever ( ENL 214) So in turn, I think him and the man were uniting infinitely and no alienation happened here. I really enjoyed your blog !