by Tom Pantera
Columnist

There’s something called “compassion fatigue” that happens whenever a string of disasters hits the national news. Basically, it means that people sort of run out of sympathy or empathy and, when news of the latest disaster hits, they more or less shrug and turn away.

It really doesn’t say anything bad about people who do that. It’s just human nature. No matter how empathetic a person naturally is, when you’ve heard about the hundredth hurricane or earthquake or fire, it’s hard to muster the psychological energy to get too wrapped up in it.

Maybe it’s because I follow politics, but I’m suffering from something similar. In my case, call it “outrage fatigue.”

What I’m about to say is a little heretical, but bear with me. There are things I just can’t get too upset about, even though on some level I almost certainly should.

Stories on the National Security Agency’s questionable activities involving spying on U.S. citizens leave me cold. A lot of folks are really upset about that, but I just can’t seem to work myself up into much of a froth.

For one thing, it’s a spy agency. It’s doing what spy agencies do. Granted, they shouldn’t be spying on American citizens – that does have the slight favor of Gestapo to it – but we shouldn’t be surprised that the NSA’s work ends up sort of bleeding past the borders of its mandate.

The fact of the matter is, for the great majority of people, being spied on by the NSA or the CIA or whomever just isn’t much of an issue. Most of us don’t lead lives that are so dramatic that we have to worry about being caught out doing something. I know that comes perilously close to the “if you haven’t done anything wrong, you don’t need to worry” argument, but put it this way: I know what kind of things I’ve done in my life and if the NSA is bird-dogging me, it has some seriously underemployed people.

In fact, a while back I tried to get copies of my FBI file only to discover with some chagrin that I apparently don’t have one. I had done it just for chucks – as I said, I can’t imagine why the feds would be interested in me – so I wasn’t terribly upset. The main reason I did it was to see whether there was anything actually erroneous in it. A friend once got a copy of his file and what struck him was the sheer number of incorrect facts. And we aren’t talking about political leanings, which can be subject to interpretation. We’re talking about things like addresses, which would be either true or false.

Of course, as a journalist, government secrecy is something for which I have a reflexive dislike. But how do you expect a spy agency to be open about its work? There are some cases where it shouldn’t be, and even in cases where it should be, these people make their living keeping secrets. Never try to beat somebody at what they do for a living.

Another thing I can’t seem to get worked up about is drone warfare. It drives me crazy every time I hear somebody bitching about civilian deaths in Afghanistan due to drones. Well, guess what? It’s war. Civilians die in war. I know that sounds cold, but it’s the truth. You can differ with whether the war should be carried on – I know I do – but if you’re going to do that kind of thing, civilian casualties are going to result. If you don’t want civilians to die, don’t go to war.

There are other cases where I’ve simply run out of outrage. I’m a huge proponent of gun control, but I’ve given up. It’s not going to happen. If we can’t pass meaningful gun control legislation after 20 elementary school kids are gunned down, it’s not going to happen, ever. You can debate why that is, but it doesn’t change the outcome. More people are going to die, some of them in huge groups, but we’ll never do anything about it. The will just isn’t there.

Now when it comes to running out of outrage, I guess you can accuse me of enabling the bad guys – and there are bad guys, like the leadership of the NRA – to win. Maybe so. But you can only stay pissed off for so long before it starts to feel like you’re beating your head against the wall. And I’m not the kind of person who can stay angry all the time, so it wouldn’t do me any good to join the Tea Party, which I disagree with politically anyway.

There are things that still have the capacity to make me angry. The class warfare against the poor in this country, the sheer, Dickensian stinginess of so many people who could do something about it but simply won’t, drives me nuts. That a significant number of children go hungry every day in this, the richest country in the history of the world, makes me livid. That so many people in this country are clueless enough to vote against their own self-interest is highly irritating. That a minority of a minority in this country, the social conservatives, are intent on taking away gains that have been in place for years, like access to contraceptives, makes me want to scream.

So I guess when it comes to outrage, I’m not quite played out yet. Maybe as I get older I’ve learned to pick and choose what I allow to make me mad. That’s probably healthy. At least I hope it is. I know it’s healthier than walking around angry all the time.

tpantera@yahoo.com