Shock dulls when suffering remains distant from one's own life. [causal]
Looking back now, I cringe at how easy I had it. If I felt immune to shock, it was mainly because of my distance from its sources. It wasn't my family members who were killed from the air. It wasn't my neighborhood that was in line for demolition, nor was it my kid's teachers who were getting fired so that public schools could be converted to private ones.
Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, loc. 18