The Cruelty of Idle Curiosity.

'I need to migrate,’ wrote the young Turkish woman in a YouTube comment. ‘Can anybody help me?’ I was intrigued because I felt sorry for her, and so I commented back with a few questions.

She answered them; she thinks I might be able to help. I can’t, of course. There’s nothing I can do except indulge in a wordy reply intimating genuine empathy, which would be absolutely useless and probably only deepen the disappointment.

How utterly thoughtless of me. How stupid. How shameful. It’s like walking past a homeless person sitting by the side of the road and asking: ‘Why are you homeless?’ And they tell you, and you reply: ‘Oh, I see. How interesting,’ and walk on.

I just found another reason to jump off Beachy Head.