Source: Bigstock

The problem with information is that it seems to require of us some kind of emotional response. We cannot openly admit that the latest massacre in Syria is a matter of indifference to us, and that what we are really worried about is what we are going to have for dinner this evening or whether we will be able to make it to the cinema. By a process of what Freud called reaction formation, we go to the opposite extreme of our indifference and claim a degree of concern that in our hearts we know is bogus. I vividly recall a famous journalist known for his commitment to global justice solicitously protecting his freshly pressed and dry-cleaned outfits from the creasing and staining effects of the civil war in which we happened to be traveling together.

Perhaps there really are people like those flayed corpses that one sees, who have in effect no protective coating or skin between themselves and the corrosive effect of the world. But mostly, I suspect, those who claim to feel for millions of others are merely trying, and usually failing, to feel something. Exaggeration is a substitute for sincerity.

As for Kim’s concern for the victims of the bus crash, most of whom were Chinese, the article in the Telegraph gives at least a plausible account of its motive:

Mr. Kim…appeared sombre and concerned, reflecting the importance that Pyongyang places on its relationship with China.

Quite so. No China, no North Korea; and no North Korea, Mr. Kim hanged from nearest lamppost. Certainly there will be no more notebooks at the ready, taking down his immortal vaporings to guide orthopedic surgeons on how to treat the injured.

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