Why do people protest and mourn when a meerkat is killed by a natural predator on "Animal Planet," but we're weirdly unaffected by weekly reports of human violence, war, and death? Wired's Tony Long reflects on the ways we react to violence and atrocity, and wonders at the cost of our desensitization to it all:

I've been in the news business for a long time. I remember as a young editor being deeply affected by certain stories I'd see, often involving abject human misery and cruelty, only to hear the older guys on the desk cracking tasteless jokes and laughing about those same stories. I put this down to the "cop mentality" that a lot of reporters and editors develop. Constant exposure to the seamy underbelly of human existence, which pervades certain aspects of our business, forces you grow a thick skin. Some of it is bravado, for sure, but not all of it.

Eventually, without really being aware of it, the same thing happened to me. Stories that used to upset me barely registered a reaction. "Family of six slaughtered in Alabama trailer park." "Ferryboat carrying religious pilgrims capsizes in Java Sea -- hundreds die." Yeah? Wow. When's lunch?

I'm used to seeing this issue discussed by concerned Christian pundits, but it's interesting to see it come up at Wired.