Going potty over Potter

OKAY, I must speak my piece or forever be silent over this one. But I can't be quiet anymore. The planets are in alignment; my mind won't stop racing and my fingers are itching.
Blame it on this Potter kid. The world knows him as Harry Potter. Apparently, by this time tomorrow, thousands of people, kids mainly, will be happily digesting J.K. Rowling's final Potter tome.
Something called Deathly Hallows. All this hype over Harry Potter has finally got my goat. I didn't want to say anything for years because I thought it was just a passing fancy among the younger generation but the phenomenon persisted for years.
Well, the straw that broke the camel's back has finally been placed on the earlier tonne of hay strapped to the Ship of the Desert. Honestly though, the blame for this unusual human response towards a book title, not even deemed as literature material, is rather disquieting.
I don't imagine William Shakespeare had encountered this kind of reaction even at the height of his fame. I placed the blame squarely on the media. Seven years into the 21st century, we have begun to witness the enormous influence exerted by the media for other parties' percuniary ends.
For months now, the media, with the fullest co-operation of film producers, book publishers and probably the tacit compliance of the writer herself, have been harping on the final chapter of the Harry Potter saga.
From Europe to Asia, book stores, book publishers, and other agents of the printed word have been knocking on the doors of all media avenues possible to broadcast the message that Potter will cast his final spell.
And what does the world do? It joined in the biggest media game ever played. I have just received word from someone who has just seen the movie. Verdict: nothing really earth-shattering, either here on this planet or in any other dimension.
As a person who have occasional encounters with all things media, I fully understand the implications and ramifications of this kind of literary phenomenon. Kudos to Rowling for having achieved such stupendous success with her Harry Potter series.
For a woman who used to survive on burgers while writing on then an obscure teenager called Harry Potter in a Hogwarts school of magic, Rowling has indeed journeyed a long way.
But this frenzy of activity on a global scale over Potter does indicate to sociologists and behavariousl scientists that something is amiss with modern society. Why are we not equally worked up over global warming, Polar caps meltdown, famine in Darful, starvation in North Korea and endless conflagrations in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan?
Are those issues not of worldwide importance? Whither human society as far as crucial matters are concerned? Let it not be said a hundred years from now that inhabitants of this planet in the year 2007 were moronically preoccupied with issues of little consequence while Earth teeter on a precipice of biblical proportions.
I am not shocked by this inexplicable reaction by so many Potter fans but actually saddened by the masses who are not Potter fans, who are in fact equally nonchalant about other issues that would affect their grandchildren and descendants in the generations to come.
Here we are, standing on the threshold of some of the most phenomenal technological achievements in the history of science and yet we go ga-ga over a fictional character called Harry.
What does this say about us? What will the people of the future think about us? It will be a sad day indeed if our response right now is: "who cares? we won't be around a century from now anyway!"
Tomorrow's world is built on the foundation of today's concerns. The Now phenomenon is just as vital as the targets of till-then era, even if the aims are slightly blurry just now.
I lament the state of right-thinking humans, not all of them but many of them. Surely, we have not become numbed to things that matter most. Entertainment is fine. Escapism is negligible if its effects are fleeting but obsession with a product of someone's imagination does not bode well for modern thinking.
When I see public reaction over the latest Harry Potter book and little reaction from the same people over global hunger, disease, massive corruption and killings, sadness grips my heart. My mind is ill at ease.
Will not these same people show some compassion too to the hungry in their midst? Are they not also concerned by the negative influences faced by their growing children in college, at work and elsewhere?
Sometimes, I figure that the world has gone over the deep end to become indifferent to a suffering society and on a global scale, uncaring about the millions who may not survive in the next five years.
A hundred years from now, books on Harry Potter would most probably be still available but humankind may no longer be concerned about Harry then, as they would be about finding their next meal or seeking a safer clime for their families.