To start a fire

To start a fire, you'll need good tinder, a sharp knife, a flint striker and dry firewood. Once you create a spark (using your knife and flint striker) that catches the tinder, which can be composed of newspaper, bark, leaves or resin, use your kindling (dry twigs or sticks) to support a small flame and blow gently upon it. When the flame is sizable, you can add larger pieces of firewood in order to build a satisfying fire.

But preparation for a fire is its own beast. The location must be protected from the wind, far from dry vegetation and clear of any debris. Fires are best started upon stone or shale rock, to provide a safe foundation. Even then, once a fire is burning, it must receive constant attention and fueling and once it is has served its purpose, it must be allowed to burn completely to ash, drowned in water and stirred with a shovel to rid of lit embers. For without careful preparation, responsible attendance and complete execution, a controlled flame can swiftly become a blazing forest fire.

No, I’m not Smokey the Bear, whose amiable behavior (after what we’ve done to his forests) has most likely evolved to that of the bear who mauled Leonardo DiCaprio to the tune of an Oscar. My columns this semester will not traverse the various flame-retardant materials available to the average consumer; instead, I will be writing about our “fiery” world, and the inflammatory elements of society that often dominate our perspectives or momentarily catch our attention.

In an era that has found apathy to be “the new cool,” it is true that moments of spirited ignition, of passionate fires that burn, are special. We take the fiery matters of the world—from its political, cultural, economic, racial and social realms—which tactically instigate us by stirring the status quo. This, in turn, gains our attention and, better yet, our own fiery reactions. And, as a society, we still collectively celebrate these fires, just as we have in the past, recognizing that these push-and-pull movements are integral to the process, as well as to our own good.

But often the praise we lend to this kind of activity is neither critical nor fair, as we fail to seek out complete understanding and analyses of the inflammatory people, events, issues, art and ideologies, and their respective complexities. If we smell something burning, we immediately yell “fire,” without considering the possibility that the flame might have been caused by an unpredicted gust of wind, an unstable foundation or a smattering of unattended embers.

This leads to a dangerous mindset that has seeped into human behavior, media practice and even societal trends. Because we’ve begun to treat all action as credible action, we’re losing the ability to distinguish between the controlled fires that have been carefully constructed and consciously nourished and the raging forest fires that have been irresponsibly lit and spread due to neglect. This has set the precedent that an action, any action, merits some sort of attention or care, no matter its origin or intention.

So, worse than a society of apathetic people, we’ve become a bunch of narcissistic anarchists, setting the world on fire so we can all revel in the stench from burning each other.

And our fuel? A reactive culture and society, led by the media platforms that rely on keeping the public inflamed.