The Cherry Post

Peru Earthquake kills 500: flashed on your screen for a day, seemed pretty crazy hey? But where is it now? 6 miners trapped in a coal mine in Utah- been running non stop all over the major media for a week. Do we infer from this that one American life = 85 or so Peruvian lives? Or is this an interesting insight into the power of nationalism?

Why are we so shocked by the coalmine collapse, to the extent that is becomes an national drama, and tragedy-in-waiting? I think there could be a good argument made that this event is one of those rare (ish) events that allow people wherever they are in the nation to feel sorrow and emotion focused on a single location and realize how they are connected across this vast country. The bridge collapse in Minnesota is probably also one of these, but a highway bridge collapsing in rush hour is always going to attract tons of attention.

So what makes an event a nation-focuser? It seems that it has to come at a relatively stable news time (so that something can't come in from leftfield and overshadow it), at a time of economic or national worries (to give the collective spirit a boost). They also take up a tremendous amount of news space and disappear realtively quickly once the situation has been resolved. Nation-focusing events probably wouldn't be that newsworthy in other situations. It helps if there is a potent race or class element to the story.

Some past examples include the 2006 Duke University Lacross Scandal, 2001 Chandra Levy disappearance (remember that?), Micheal Jackson Kiddy Fidling (at least the first one), OJ Simpson trial, Rosy O'donnel and Trump fight. Ok the last one might not count. I am not from this country, so my knowledge of national-focusing events is not that great, so if you could add to the list of potential nation focusing events that would be great.

An alternative, or perhaps complimentary, argument concerning the attention the mine is getting is that the US is having a crisis about its industrial identity. Offshoring, outsourcing, de-industrialization embodied by the troubles in Detroit has contributed to an enduring sense of angst about American power. China and unfair trade is dominating the business and economic headlines. Having mines collapse on workers is hardly indicative of an industrial powerhouse at the top of its game. That such a story takes so many inches of column space is in itself a sign of this malaise.

And probably some people are fed up with dreregulated and privatized industries performing incredibly poorly. A disaster in Utah in 1984 prompted a federal review of ventilationa nd respiration regulations in mines: it took 3 years to get a report out, and bureacratic work slow tactics got the follow up review to take another 12 years. By 1999 the Mine Safety and Health Adminstration was ready to act on the new reccomendations for ventilation, and guess what? 2001 President Bush shelved the proposals. Nice. Similarly, apparantly, this summer is the worst on record for airline delays and general misery for passengers. Another score for Reaganomics.