Nick Berg

I have the worst luck with timing. I decided to take a few days off from blogging just in time to miss the Nick Berg story. Millions upon millions of hits generated, millions of people scrabbling for somewhere to download the video, millions of fresh readers, and I didn't get a sniff. Ah well. For most of us, life goes on.

I couldn't bring myself to watch the video. I can't imagine ever being able to watch it. I can't understand why anyone would want to. A group of colleagues saw it at work: most in disgust, some obviously enjoying it. I won't pretend that my employer attracts the most decent people. Many of my colleagues are career criminals (they make the best salesmen). Car thieves and drug dealers; turn up with a broken nose and bruised knuckles on a Monday morning - should've seen the other guy, though; 20 years old and two kids to different women. You probably know the type.

The thing about criminals, though, is that they just don't care about people. They can't care, or the guilt of what they do would crush them. There's something in their mind, something damaged, that blocks empathy. That's what made it so disturbing to watch them watch the video. It was worse, much worse, than the regular morbid rubbernecking; watch-through-your-fingers, hand over mouth. These guys watched with smiles. I heard laughter. It was entertainment. They watched it twice, three times.

I just don't understand some people.

*Update* - Rich Marotti has an open letter to the people who found Seldom Sober while searching for the Nick Berg video.