Distant suffering morality, media and politics

Description

Distant Suffering, first published in 1999, examines the moral and political implications for a spectator of the distant suffering of others as presented through the media. What are the morally acceptable responses to the sight of suffering on television, for example, when the viewer cannot act directly to affect the circumstances in which the suffering takes place? Luc Boltanski argues that spectators can actively involve themselves and others by speaking about what they have seen and how they were affected by it. Developing ideas in Adam Smiths moral theory, he examines three rhetorical topics available for the expression of the spectators response to suffering: the topics of denunciation and of sentiment and the aesthetic topic. The book concludes with a discussion of a crisis of pity in relation to modern forms of humanitarianism. A possible way out of this crisis is suggested which involves an emphasis and focus on present suffering.