Beating the Dead Horse, or Irrational Exuberance of the American Psyche

You probably saw the obituary, written in a rather epic style, describing the outpour of public support for the ailing hero, now deseased. You know, the one that was a champion, and whose struggle made him a source of inspiration for the masses.

I'm talking, of course, about the horse that was euthanized earlier in the week. Not the farm animal kind - that particular horse was thoroughbred, but still equally susceptible to the desease "laminitis" and complications thereof. If you didn't know what laminitis was, your probably know now. If not, look it up, it's fascinating stuff.

The horse's name was Barbaro. We've read about Barbaro receiving get-well postcards, flowers and even "religious medals" (I am at loss speculating what religion or confession Barbaro belonged to). He probably appreciated the flowers, even though it's not clear whether he enjoyed them aesthetically or as a part of his diet. What's more important, Barbaro has received gifts totaling $1.2M, which allowed a series of complex surgeries and convalescence procedures to be performed. It's too bad that all that money and effort could not save him and now has to be written off. It's a big chunk of cash, you know.

I know a few people with serious illnesses, who actually need surgeries they can't afford. I can reasonably assume that they are going through pain and suffering of at least same magnitude as the great Barbaro had to endure. It is alarmingly rare, though, that those people get recongnition equal to a minute fraction of that which the horse has received. The surgeon who operated on Barbaro was fighting back tears when he briefed journalists at the press conference. I personally never saw a surgeon reacting this way to a failed procedure performed on humans.

In no way I want to make light of the heroic struggle of Barbaro, the colt who so valiantly won the Kentucky Derby. His legend will live on, complete with the number of stitches he received and details of his painkiller regimen. But I'm questioning our collective sanity in observing how Barbaro, in his death, made some major front pages, while very few of our heros who die almost daily in Iraq and Afghanistan are ever afforded that honor. On the CNN page, the casualty numbers and reports from Iraq often look like small-print links tucked between a few others discussing overarching issues such as body fat index of Tyra Banks or the new season of American Idol.

Now, two days after Barbaro was put out of his misery, there is a follow-up article detailing (again) his injury and the surgery that followed, accompanied by a rather complete biography of the surgeon. Last time I read that much detail about an injury and its treatment was when Ronald Reagan was shot.

It would be a nightmare to reduce one's information intake to analytical reports about war, climate change, healthcare and global competeteiveness of American education and businesses. But it's equally nightmarish to see the landscape of the American public discourse being so polluted with tabloid-grade material and so oblivious to the real issues and events that will shape lives of many generations of Americans to come.