Move on, nothing to see here
Sep. 18th, 2001 09:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
khaosworksA reporter called up the Mart today to quiz Ming about the "eerie coincidence" of in last week's Adventures of Superman #596, which showed the aftermath of the pig's breakfast (to put it politely) that was this year's DC uber-event Our Worlds At War. Page 2 of the book showed a shot of the twin-towered (actually, tuning fork shaped) Lexcorp Towers smoldering and damaged after the events of the war. What most people did miss was that on page 8 of the same comic, the JLA Monitors show the WTC dented in almost the same places. The reporter wanted to know if there was truth to the rumor that DC was recalling the issue (No.) or that the issue would rise in price (Probably not, but there are reports of people hoarding, anyway.).
Ming, naturally referred him to me. I tried to convince him the real story was how people are so desperate to empathize with the events of last week (Good Lord, has it only been a week?) that they are willing to find anything they can grab on to in a try to find some kind of connection. I'll point you guys to the article once it shows up, if it does at all, since he's quoting me.
Yes, it was a coincidence. It was also a coincidence that on the same week Princess Diana died, Wonder Woman, aka Princess Diana, was also killed off in her book (she got better). It was also a coincidence that this week's Punisher involved a terrorist plot to crash a 747 into a building. It was also a coincidence that six months ago, the pilot episode of the X-Files spinoff, The Lone Gunmen, involved a conspiracy by the federal government to crash a jet into the WTC and blame terrorists, thereby jacking up arms sales.
What of it?
What does it all mean, exactly, if you find these connections? Is anyone suggesting that these creators were in league with the terrorists? I don't think so. Is anyone suggesting some kind of psychic fallout that made them precognitive? Maybe. Is anyone suggesting that the universe happens to like synchronicity? Very probably.
But so what? There are more important things to deal with than look for meaning in strings of coincidences. Any good fortean worth his salt knows about synchronicity, and the underlying interconnectedness of all things. These things happen all the time and we don't need to try and find them. We simply note it down, file it away, and move on from there. It happens, but it affects little. There's still rubble to clear, blood to donate, support to give to anti-terrorist causes.
Let's get on with the business of living, shall we?
Ming, naturally referred him to me. I tried to convince him the real story was how people are so desperate to empathize with the events of last week (Good Lord, has it only been a week?) that they are willing to find anything they can grab on to in a try to find some kind of connection. I'll point you guys to the article once it shows up, if it does at all, since he's quoting me.
Yes, it was a coincidence. It was also a coincidence that on the same week Princess Diana died, Wonder Woman, aka Princess Diana, was also killed off in her book (she got better). It was also a coincidence that this week's Punisher involved a terrorist plot to crash a 747 into a building. It was also a coincidence that six months ago, the pilot episode of the X-Files spinoff, The Lone Gunmen, involved a conspiracy by the federal government to crash a jet into the WTC and blame terrorists, thereby jacking up arms sales.
What of it?
What does it all mean, exactly, if you find these connections? Is anyone suggesting that these creators were in league with the terrorists? I don't think so. Is anyone suggesting some kind of psychic fallout that made them precognitive? Maybe. Is anyone suggesting that the universe happens to like synchronicity? Very probably.
But so what? There are more important things to deal with than look for meaning in strings of coincidences. Any good fortean worth his salt knows about synchronicity, and the underlying interconnectedness of all things. These things happen all the time and we don't need to try and find them. We simply note it down, file it away, and move on from there. It happens, but it affects little. There's still rubble to clear, blood to donate, support to give to anti-terrorist causes.
Let's get on with the business of living, shall we?
