I was writing a post when my old laptop showed me a blue screen (sic!) and reboot started. After it was finished and I connected to the Internet I found out that a terrorist act happened in Volgograd. It happened again. People are dead. Why am I writing this? First of all, to express condolences to the families of the victims… As if they are interested in my words in a foreign language right now. Empathy is very important for us as human beings but when somebody dies, no one can do anything about it, thus formulaic expressions and social rituals are left for us as markers of our ‘humaneness’. I may sound cynical but this ‘cynicism’ is a defense reaction.

I remember when the August 2004 Moscow metro bombing happened near Rizhskaya metro station which is just two stations away from the station nearest to the house where I live. The aftermath of it and other terrorist acts for me was that sometimes when I’m in the Moscow metro the following thoughts come to my mind. I’m watching people: everybody’s busy reading their newspapers, playing on mobile phones, clicking on their tablets… What if it was to happen here. Now. BOOOOM! Is it very painful?

That’s what the terrorists want. Fear. Paranoia. Panic. But I’m just pondering over it. I’m calm.

When Jean Baudrillard died in 2007, I stumbled on a site where the article on his death was put in a ‘Dolce Vita/Celebrities/Gossip’-type rubric. I thought he would have appreciated the black humour if he had been alive.

Death became the ultimate show. Ultimately, it sells. Don’t you hear? Click, click, ding, ding.

Isn’t it awful?

Update. As we know: the show must go on…