''One death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.'' What do you think?

Answer 1

Isn't it dreadfully sad? If we are confronted with the personal information about a person, we suddenly care about their death, yet if we are given a hard, cold, number, we suddenly could care less. It seems once we identify with the deceased, it is no longer a ho-hum affair.

Take, for example, 9-11. We saw the faces of the dead and missing on TV. We knew so many of them. We saw their loved ones on TV, crying at the cameras to show their picture.

Yet when you try to discuss the genocide in Darfur with people, their eyes glaze over and you get a "why should we care?" response.

How many times have you heard people you respect say something dreadful like "Why are we helping all these people around the world when we have people at home still starving?"

Think about that statement for a moment and you'll see the inherent lack of morality to it. The gospels speak of the poor widow who gave her last two coins, and how those coins were more precious to God than the rich man tossing a little gold in.

Why did we spend the last week discussing Anna Nicole when there are probably thousands of sweet-faced innocent children around the world who died from leukemia on that same day?

It's so fascinating that we as humans have to feel a connection with people in order for their death to penetrate our hearts.

Answer 2

Every death is a tragedy. To the people who have lost a loved one it is more than a statistic.

That will not change with a million deaths. It trivializes the death of the individual.

If you say someone killed a single person it is murder. If they kill a million, it is genocide.

Answer 3

Baghdad had no longer something to do with 9/11 genius. As others already stated, a million deaths ability no longer something because it truly is only a range. you won't be able to relate to that, subsequently there is no longer a lot truly 'tragic' about it except a generalized concept of death as being tragic. my personal credo is 'one death is a tragedy in reality to those tormented by technique of it, a million deaths is significant inhabitants administration.'

Answer 4

One death is a tragedy IF you know and care about the one person who died.

A million deaths are a statistic mainly because you neither know nor care about the million involved.

It's all a matter of subjective involvement.

Answer 5

statistics are statistics due to the numerical computation.. You can't have "one' statistic. You can have one sample and have that turn into many which becomes the statistic.
Technically a tragedy defines somthing that has happened to a person of great character or somthing of value, somthing that is cherished.
I personally thing a million deaths is a great tragedy, but in the technical scheme of things, its not worded in such a way.

Answer 6

I think this is correct. One death will have so much more impact, because it's a personal thing, and you can see, hear, and feel the results. Once the numbers go higher, it's something we cannot fully imagine or comprehend. Look at history... Horrible accidents, mass killings, genocides...All become a blur after a while, no matter how much of an impact they originally have. Look at war-- Vietnam, now Iraq... When do the numbers stop alarming us and just blend into the background? Human nature, unfortunately.

Answer 7

It seems to be the way historians tend to romantisice things. Take for example the Easter Rising in Ireland. hundreds of rebels were put to death, but it was Patrick Pearse who everyone remembers! I think this is because it's easier to identify with one person, rather than with hundreds!

Answer 8

Yeah, a famous quote by Stalin. He let kill or die many million people in war and work camps

Answer 9

What a great quote,, WHEN STALIN SAID IT!!!!!!!!!!! He put the words into practice killing millions. Just give a little credit where credit is due.

Answer 10

xcellent quote.even if it is one r million ..the next day its the lesson for the globe.