Tragedy often befalls fascination.  A day hiker falls to his death from a slippery overhang while peering down at a spectacular waterfall.  A child is swept into the breaking swells of the incoming tide while playing too close to the edge of an ocean-rinsed granite ledge. Yet as Auden wrote in “Musée Des Beaux Arts”: In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry, But for him it was not an important failure… Four dead Americans in Benghazi.  No one responsible cares.  Dude. Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse Scratches its innocent behind on a tree. And a nation reaps tragedy from fascination in choosing a president because of his captivating celebrity, the color of his skin, and his speaking style.  Nothing else.  And we are expected to move on.  A...(Read Full Article)