Hierarchy of Pain

Bellandi Insight

Hierarchy of Pain

History keeps a cruel ledger: some losses become headlines; others vanish into footnotes. The pattern isn’t new — but in an algorithmic media economy, it scales. This page asks a blunt question: whose pain counts, and why?

2025: A snapshot of uneven attention

  • Gaza: Famine confirmed in Gaza governorate in Aug 2025 amid extreme civilian harm and aid access constraints. Data remains politicized, but the humanitarian signal is unambiguous.
  • Ukraine: UN monitors recorded the year’s monthly highs in civilian casualties mid-2025; drones became a leading cause of civilian deaths.
  • Sudan: One of the world’s largest displacement crises — massacres near camps and hospitals, response severely under-funded.
  • DR Congo: Escalations around Goma drove mass displacement and mounting civilian deaths with scant global coverage.
OCHA: Gaza Snapshot OHCHR: Ukraine casualties Reuters: drones & civilians UN on El-Fasher attacks Goma crisis overview

These crises are not comparable in cause or law — only in the reality that civilians pay first and longest.

Why it persists

  • Algorithmic attention: Platforms reward proximity, novelty, and conflict between familiar actors. Distant suffering loses to local outrage.
  • Diplomatic cost: States spend political capital where they have stakes; neutrality is finite.
  • Operational access: Even when money arrives, blocked corridors and attacks on aid sites turn budgets into promises.

Your turn

Question: If attention is a currency, how do we spend it without building a market where some lives are always discounted?