Yesterday my friend, Becky, drove up from Louisville to visit me. She doesn't have a TV and doesn't listen to the news very often. My new apartment is the first place I've had any TV since high school. I've become used to watching the news multiple times a day and keeping up with everything that's going on in the world.
When Becky got here I was watching the live footage of Pope Benedict XVI's last moments in the Vatican. She asked, "Why is this important? We're not Catholic." At first I was incredulous! I couldn't understand why she didn't know that the leader of 1.2 billion people giving up essentially unlimited power was a really big deal. I explained it to her and she seemed nonplussed.
Later on, we got out some food for lunch and she asked why I had so much meat in my fridge (she's vegetarian and it was only a pound of ground turkey and a few pork chops). I told her that if the sequester happened the price of meat was going to go up so I had bought more than normal because it had been on sale. She said, "Yeah, I've heard a little bit about that...what is it?" Again, I was shocked! This is a giant thing that's really going to have an impact on us and she knew nothing about it.
After Becky left, though, I got to thinking about our conversations about current events. I didn't have a TV in our house until I was 16 years old. When we lived in Montana, we listened to the Canadian news radio station for our news in the mornings and that was it. When we lived in Vanuatu, we listened to BBC Australia for our news (when we could get it). When we moved to Louisville, we had a TV, but we weren't interested in 24 hour news networks and didn't even watch the evening news, really. In college, I paid attention to politics, but didn't have a TV, so I got my news from the Internet when I felt like looking for it.
Now, I watch the Morning Joe, Good Morning Tri-State (our local morning news show), Good Morning America, Hardball with Chris Matthews, and ABC World News Tonight every day, as well as The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. I also sometimes watch AC360 and Piers Morgan Tonight or The Rachel Maddow Show, depending on what they're talking about. And when I'm in the car, I listen to NPR. Oh, and on weekends, it's Up with Chris Hayes. That's a lot of news!
So, why is this even a topic of conversation?
I am concerned about the state of our country on a daily basis. Becky is not. I'm very worried that my fiancé will lose his job and we won't be able to afford our current lifestyle because of the sequester cuts. Becky is not. I'm fascinated and nervous about the next pope (will he address contraception, gay marriage, etc?). Becky is not.
Is ignorance bliss? In all honesty, I remember being in Vanuatu in my early teen years when the Columbia space shuttle didn't make it back safely. We heard about it on the same day--kind of a big deal in and of itself--and it was sad. That's all we heard for a few days and we had time to reflect on it. When we were there, I didn't hear anything that wasn't massive news.
Now, I hear so many "Breaking News" stories that I can't remember what the "breaking news" was yesterday! How do you separate fluff from substance? How is it possible that I watch around six hours of news a day and can't tell you what the headlines from yesterday were, yet my anxiety about the state of the world is at an all-time high?!
So, could the 24-hour news networks, the morning shows, and the evening shows (not to mention the 24-hour connectedness on our mobile devices) be contributing to our country's insane anxiety rate?! I think so.
What do you think?
"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi
Totally agree, although I would suggest that you diversify your newswatching a bit. I would argue that the reporters that have been threatened by the administration may be on to something and worth reading and listening to. The news sources you site are fed the administration's talking points on a daily basis--I have a friend at NBC news--rarely do they actually investigate and report anymore. We are being fed fear on daily basis to keep us begging for the government to come in and rescue us. Tell me how there can be so much fear of the sequestor when we'll still be spending more money this year than last year? The 'cut' is only 2.4% in the rate of growth over a long period of time. Is your fiance's job a federal job? Did you know that the president can decide where the cuts can take place in the 'budget'? Why not just cut the fat from the budget--like excess traveling on private planes(Holder and head of FBI)or obsolete programs? The president promised he would go "line by line" through the budget and cut un-necessary spending--the main reason I voted for him in '08. In actuality, he's had no budget in 4 years. Instead we get these continuing resolutions and fear is ramped up on a regular basis--another one is coming at the end of March. Maybe the gov't will be shut down--OMG!!!How will we survive!!!:)
ReplyDeleteIgnorance may indeed be bliss. However, I would argue that we're in this mess because of ignorance. Seeking out just the news that agrees with our own agenda and taking it at face value is a major problem. Our leaders are lying to us and the media is complicit. Ex: Sec. of Ed. Arne Duncan had to recant his statement that pink slips to fire teachers are being sent out NOW(several days ago) because of sequester-proven FALSE. Hope you're not in needless fear over his false statement. What a waste!We're being played!
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