We do hear about plane crashes in the news, and I have to assume most people do, since my locale is a backwater. Yet I hear about helicopter crashes, on up to jet liners. Big planes you can kind of understand because the potential death rate number could be quite high. Yet even then, the number would not be a tiny fraction of the population of the planet. Car crashes don't make the international news often, though they can be quite dreadful.
The answer came to me, AN answer, shortly after the question. Planes make the planet smaller in a way which may reflect the dimensions of Humanity. The fact we are all, as people, part of something larger grates on the nerves of some scholars, yet the fact peaks out (peeks out) when you look at the question I posed. The plane crashes are universal in a way, affecting perhaps a large portion of the planet. Plane make the planet smaller and larger at the same time. Smaller because people can arrive at far places quicker. Larger because Humanity becomes aware of itself when news items about crash events are broadcast. Aware of itself as a single unit, as Humanity. You are alert to news about aerial crashes because you, unwittingly often, are aware, it is news about yourself.
