The Deaths of the Corner People
Updated: Mar 10
(Philosocom's directory on death: https://www.philosocom.com/post/defining-death)
The world can be divided into two types of people: those who are consistently covered by the various media, and those who are only covered every once in a while, if at all. Even in a world where many live in comfort never known before in human history, people die prematurely from events that most of the world is not yet aware of. Many people may not even aware of their existence to begin with.
(2023 Note: There are 195 countries in the world today. How many of them can you name by heart?)
Much of our external knowledge goes beyond our mere senses; it requires the observation and presentation of various media outlets in order to come to our attention. And since many of us are largely passive beings, receiving information rather than actively investigating for ourselves, our global knowledge depends on bodies beyond our control, thus determining our current level of knowledge and ignorance.
And some of these media outlets may have their own ulterior motives. The main motive of Philosocom as a media outlet, by the way, is to research reality through philosophy and exchange of ideas.
In 2020, a war has emerged between Armenia and Azerbaijan over a disputed territory. In it, thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed in the conflict, largely on the Armenian side.
This is but one example of many where people die and their deaths remain largely ignored by major media providers. South Sudan, a country declared fairly recently in 2011, had much pain and suffering following a civil war, where hundreds of thousands of people were killed.
The bitter truth is that human equality is not yet fully implemented in the world. If there were a civil war in France, Britain, or the United States, most of the world would be horrified and would follow every piece of news about the event. However, if you were brutally executed in a "corner country," your death would go unnoticed.
Education about the world is inadequate, leaving the potential to learn new things to oneself. In actuality, the opposite should be the case; otherwise, there would be no point in providing education to those who can do it themselves. Only seldom should a teacher learn from a student about the topics that the teacher is supposed to teach the student.
In this world, people need to be auto-didacts because otherwise they would not necessarily recieve the knowledge that is sufficent for their understanding. If I wasn't an auto-didact myself, I would not even know English, as its education in Israel is inadequate as well. That's because not knowing Hebrew here would easily results in misccomunication with locals, who either know English partially, or not at all. Especially in rural regions.
North Korea is the closest "Corner Country" to break through the glass ceiling blocked by central medias. Due to its heavy influence on major countries such as South Korea and the United States, it is the most covered place in the world where crimes against humanity still persist.
Theoretically, if it had no nuclear weaponry that could potentially cause the next world war, North Korea would have probably stayed in the world's corner, similar to the recent Armenian war and the unfortunate South Sudanese mass murder by its own government.
It is unfortunate when people need to emigrate from their countries in order to have a better chance at life. It just goes to show that it doesn't always matter who you are or what you're capable of. You also need to come from the "right" place. Otherwise, it is as if you are "born to fail" in life.
In a more appropriate world, every country in the world would be relatively equal in its potential for proper media coverage. The deaths of humans in a "corner country" should be of the same importance and have the same reception as in any other part of the globe.
But no. In reality, information providers are driven not necessarily by wanting to help us discover the world, but by interests such as profit. After all, "content is king" because they earn their keep by giving us the content we, the consumers, want to consumer.
Similar to what the "Bias-Breaking Hill" article was talking about, it is insufficent to recieve just the info you are provided in your passive media, particularly the news on TV and social media feed. Hopefully they can be trusted, but in the name of obtaining optimal knowledge, multiple sources are required to attend to, in order to break the frame of the bias of your local system.
To those who believe there are no bloody wars in the modern world, other than the Russio-Ukranian war, I would kindly suggest informing yourselves of the existence of less-known countries. These countries also have humans living in them, and not all of them are your average liberal democracy or constitutional monarchy. Yes, there are still absolute monarchies in this world, and Americanization has yet to achieve world domination.
Before I wrap this up, I would like to admit that I do not know everything that is happening in the world. There could be atrocities happening that either you or I are unaware of, or events that you know and I do not. After all, I have only been abroad once (to the UK) and I am more than willing to learn more about the corners of humanity.
If we want to be truly united, we have to be aware of each other's existence. My deepest sympathies go out to the Yezidi people, who were victims of genocide by ISIS. The Yezidi people are similar to the Jews in that they are an ethnic group that follows a monotheistic religion. May no other cleansing of people be caused simply because they are different.
