Returning To The Wound

They say that you can draw more houseflies using honey rather than vinegar. Want to know what draws even more flies? A big pile of shit. Just about the time the internet was being made more and more usable by normal, everyday people Returning To The Wound became a "thing." This phenomena became noticeable to me right around the time of the OJ Simpson trial, but it may go further back.

What Is Returning To The Wound?

Returning to the wound is a constant bombardment of "the next big thing." In the early 1990s, cable news channels became a thing and they had to offer content in a 24 hour, 7 days-a-week stream. Because news does not occur according to a set schedule or at convenient times, much of this cable news content was repeated over and over until "the next big thing" happened. The consumer of such news was forced to hear the same stories over and over.

At some point, such repeated news tends to demoralize the viewer. If a story is depressing, constantly subjecting the viewer to such news will obviously pass the depression on.

My Personal Timeline

The following stories were constantly blasted at me. When I was a child, I did not question why as I didn't really give a shit about the news. As I grew older, specifically during the summer of the Oliver North trials, I really began to question things.

Childhood

While not in the internet/24 hour news cycle, these things were constantly talked about and were on the front page of papers every single day. Walter Cronkite gave us updates, without fail, telling Americans that they were bad people.

• Constant news about the Vietnam war
• Constant news about Richard Nixon
• Manson
• Jimmy Carter and his presidency
• Abortion and feminism

Adult

While not exactly occurring during the early days of the internet, most of this list eventually falls into that time.

• Ronald Reagan
• "Star Wars" missile defense system
• Berlin Wall
• Tiananmen Square
• Tipper Gore and the PMRC
• George Herbert Walker Bush - READ MY LIPS. NO NEW TAXES
• Oliver North
• Invasion of Kuwait
• Failure to finish the job in Kuwait
• Bill Clinton and everything to do with his personal life and his presidency

At this point, the internet really kicks in and things become crazy. It is as if some person or some group of persons recognize the power of forcing people to return to the wound and weaponized it.

• Bush/Gore election
• 9/11
• Anthrax envelope scare
• Iraq/Saddam Hussein