Trouble, go away!

The murder of the Cat of Twix and the reaction of society. A replica of a psychotherapist

In the last week, the Russian segment of the Internet was stirred up the news about the murder of Twix's home cat, which was traveling with a legally purchased ticket on the train.

Of course, the conductor behaved, firstly, simply cruelly, throwing the animal into a 30-degree frost, and secondly, simply stupid, because, apparently, she did not think about the consequences.

It is quite possible to understand the outrage of people for whom pets have become full -fledged family members, on the treatment of which a budget is spent comparable to the budget necessary for the treatment of a loved one.

I do not know anything about this woman and her worldview. But I know well that the murder of pets in rural areas (not only originally intended for the face-cows, rabbits, chickens, etc.) has not been considered and is still not considered something especially condemned. For example, drowning in a bag of kittens, with which it is not clear what to do.

Given the complete validity of indignation, nevertheless, there is a strong dissonance with the fact that for the most part either anger or indignation in the Russian segment of the Internet caused neither the murder of babies in Israel on October 7, nor the deaths of children in Belgorod in the eve of New Year's holidays, nor even something that representatives of the so -called “white scarves” are trying to shout about. It would seem that these are much more tragic topics. Neither directly, touching our topic, a bill allowing euthanasia, that is, in simple words, the murder of stray animals. I will keep silent about other precedents here for obvious reasons.

You can - and it will be quite adequate - to react emotionally to such very selective behavior of people. But here I will limit myself only to a rational explanation.

I think one of the reasons for such a selective relationship is associated with the presentation of the information agenda. Indeed, in the first lanes of the media there is a “naked party” and the murder of the conductor of Kot Twix. In addition, this agenda tells how to react and where you can resent.

The second reason is deep. In the Internet, all news is available, but not everything wants to see.

Because it is not clear what to do with the causing information and how to integrate it into your previous ideas.

Thirdly, with regard to the direction of emotional energy: in psychology there is the concept of deflection-the deviation of the emerging impulse from its original goal, which is well illustrated by the well-known drawing of Kherluf Bidstrup.

When a person does not feel the strength to protect himself from a real aggressor, he directs his anger at a weaker, from his point of view. When he feels that it is impossible to demonstrate his grief about his real heavy losses, he becomes unnecessarily sentimental about less significant incidents, but at the same time completely not sensitive to great tragedies.