A lot of people have my email address these days (unlike in the past when I still imagined a private life was compatible with being on the Internet). Most of those who have it are good people. Many are good friends.
Many also help by sending me news links. And it really has been helpful; there are days when nearly everything I post comes from such emails. Or when one of those emails leads to some productive train of thought.
But enough. If you’ve been sending me links to bad news, please stop.
I don’t need to know about the latest creepy surveillance technology revealed by whistleblowers and ignored by the public. Knowing that Barack “Bush” Obama has just slaughtered another two dozen innocents with a drone doesn’t empower me in any way to live better or be more free. It does not make me a better person or a better writer to learn that thugs have handcuffed, beaten, tased, or shot yet another hapless victim to death.
BUT!, someone will surely exclaim, That’s irresponsible! Ignorance is the problem. Information is power. Pretending that these horrors don’t exist doesn’t make them go away; it just enables tyranny. ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is …’“
Well fine. To each his own. You want to wallow in news, I totally understand because I, too, have a long history of doing such wallowing. I’ll probably (to my self-disgust) wallow again in the not-too-distant future. As long as I earn my living by writing, the temptation to know stuff will arise again and again. I surely can’t blame anybody for being a news junkie when I’m one myself, and a twice-thrice-quintuplely fallen news junkie, at that.
Still. Stop sending me bad news.
It’s not a matter of wanting to be ignorant. Not one of us hereabouts is ignorant in that sense. You know it. I know it. We already all know more than we want to know about the times we live in and the nature of the Beast that wishes to rule us all.
It’s just this: If somebody’s got smallpox, you don’t have to creep up close and count every lesion on his face to understand how sick he is. If somebody’s got bubonic plague, it’s hardly a good idea to assume you need to get right next to her with a ruler so you can gauge the exact size of the buboes.
And that’s what we’re doing with all this horrible news. So do what you like. But please-and-thank-you stop sending it to me. Because I have enough trouble with addiction to that sh*t without anybody offering me another dose.
Or to put it in a more intellectual way, here’s Rolf Dobelli from his invaluable “read twice and call me in the morning” essay, Avoid News:
Most people believe that having more information helps them make better decisions. News organizations support this belief. Hell, it’s in their interest. Will accumulating facts help you understand the world? Sadly, no. The relationship is actually inverted. The more “news factoids” you digest, the less of the big picture you will understand.
No evidence exists to indicate that information junkies are better decision makers. …
Reading news to understand the world is worse than not reading anything. What’s best: cut yourself off from daily news consumption entirely. Read books and thoughtful journals instead of gulping down flashing headlines.
You’re safe simply assuming that bad people, calling themselves “government”, are looking for ways to get more power and more money, at your expense. More details than that are not necessary.
If someone has information that some goons are planning to raid ME, personally and individually, tonight, please let me know. Otherwise…
Wonderful… I’m going to snitch the quote and keep it to send to all the people who endlessly send ME bad news. I bought into the “know your enemy” thing for far too long… all it does is make me crazy.
Ok, crazi-er…
Imagine how it feels to someone who hasn’t reached the place/situation they’d prefer to be in. Each tidbit of bad news can be paranoia inducing and near paralyzing – 2 more things to fight against. As far as I’m concerned, bad news in huge proportions is limiting, not helping.
https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/7145402112/hAA5B65F7/
OK
Amen to that, Claire… (It’s actually why I come here to read your stuff.)
Though, there is something satisfying about somebody who’s previously shrugged MY warnings off as “craziness” sending ME email about the latest, greatest surveillance technology, or the latest firearm-shaped pastry.
I’ve been avoiding news forums a lot lately. The constant stream of doom has gotten me to the point where all I can think is how sick I am of people in general.
And that’s not such a good place to be. Time to re-read my gardening catalogs again.
LOL at Karen’s link.
Ah, well. At least it wasn’t me this time.
But wait…I just heard about a politician who lied!
Avoid the bad news maybe, but let’s not forget there’s such a thing as good news too. Most of what we do is that; we’re just taught that it doesn’t count or something.
Cyprus (and every other damn currency) will turn out bad, but it’s VERY good news who controlled that playing field. Don’t overlook the power of the little person; there are lots and lots of little people.
I concur, I came to the same conclusion this week, and I think that your recent posts/questions was the catalyst.
Experiencing the small joys each day brings is much more fulfilling than filling my head with doom and gloom news. I plan to instead use that time reading and writing novels, playing with my dog, doing stuff around the house, and spending time with hubby and friends.
Roger … Wilco. [translation = I hear, I understand and I will comply.]
Although I don’t remember ever sending any bad news … ?
Take the puppies for a walk and hugs all around from me.
Apricots and doggie treats are still OK aren’t they?
stay safe,
that salt encrusted curmudgeon Raises his Very Special spyglass to enjoy the view.
When you live in a yurt in the mountains with no internet you only get bad news when you go to town…
RLW
Regardless of who first said it, I think it’s time to call bullshit on the whole, “The Only Thing Necessary for the Triumph of Evil is that Good Men Do Nothing,” ad slogan.
First, the vast majority of the real, ambitious, wide-scale evil I see being done in the world is done by people who believe without admitting the possibility of doubt that they are doing good. You want a committed world-improver? Pol Pot.
Second, this phrase has been trotted out without cease over the last decade-plus every time USEmpireCo has seen fit to grind some new Third World country under its heel under the pretext of “bringing democracy” or “humanitarian intervention.”
So whenever anyone parrots this cant at me, I feel free to conclude they’re part of the problem – and tune them out.
i won’t expect a post on this being the last Pope pursuant to medival prophecy.
I, too, have become overloaded. At present I have several days of bad news emails just waiting, like Pandora’s box, to be opened. I’m feeling guilty because I’m not passing information along, but I also know the pendulum will swing and I’ll start doing it again. I think when an individual first realizes the seriousness of our problems, there’s a manic phase where everyone needs to be informed immediately. Then there is a near panic phase when one realizes that a significant number of people never will catch on. Then one comes to acceptance, the last stage of the grief process, and tries to do what one can to be of help, which for me now is simply passing along information.
And whoever chooses to avoid the newspapers is in excellent company, i.e. T. Jefferson, who declared “I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.”
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/t/thomas_jefferson_6.html#jrl3z3TMcgVHaYB7.99
@Shel: My version of “acceptance” was to mournfully point out that we’re [expletive deleted]. What news I read is mainly for morbid entertainment (and that’s about all I pass on anymore- and rarely, now). I’ve pared my bookmarks to the bone. I only read a few blogs now- again, mainly for the entertainment (for the best, funniest “reality programming” on the planet, see Ken White’s continuing posts on Prenda et al (copyright trolls) at popehat.com). I did make a point of following one Facebook page, even though I knew it wouldn’t turn out well… but I hoped.
Now I’m past even the stage of “MPO”. I’d simply eat popcorn and watch the show, but I can’t afford popcorn.
From Ecclesiastes (NASB):
“If you see oppression of the poor and denial of justice and righteousness in the province, do not be shocked at the sight; for one official watches over another official, and there are higher officials over them.” (5:8)
“Then I looked again at all the acts of oppression which were being done under the sun. And behold I saw the tears of the oppressed and that they had no one to comfort them; and on the side of their oppressors was power, but they had no one to comfort them. So I congratulated the dead who are already dead more than the living who are still living. But better off than both of them is the one who has never existed, who has never seen the evil activity that is done under the sun.” (4:1-3)
“And I set my mind to know wisdom and to know madness and folly; I realized that this also is striving after wind. Because in much wisdom there is much grief, and increasing knowledge results in increasing pain.” (1:16-17)
My #1 complaint about people sending me news via e-mail is that it’s stuff I’ve already seen. I do pass on interesting things now and then, usually in cases where I’m pretty sure the person on the other end is genuinely interested, and / or I want to know what her reaction to it is. Mostly, I figure that people who share my interests are reading the same stuff I am. This isn’t 100% true, but I think it comes pretty close. People who want to keep up on various types of events will be reloading Drudge, CNN, Fox, Yahoo. Fark, Der Spiegel, etc.
I go through different phases of consuming news. Right now, I feel like I’m in the ‘keeping my ear to the ground’ phase. If it’s possible to do so, I’d like to have some degree of advance warning about when it’s getting close to bug-out time. I’m getting less sure about my ability to accomplish that.
Bear, nice reminder about Popehat. I tend to forget to check there and he’s linked to http://animalstalkinginallcaps.tumblr.com/ which is pretty funny.
I’m with you on that Claire. Bad news are really a dime a dozens. I rather direct my energy on the good stuff and on what I can do.
You had posted this link a while back (13 Simple Steps To Get You Through A Rough Day):
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/13-simple-steps-to-get-you-through-a-rough-day
I still look back on it when the world gets me down. 😀
Nail on the head here.
One thing that’s been really pissing me off lately is that every rare moment I get to spend on the internet I’m bombarded with an endless flood of well meaning but utterly depressing emails and facebook crap about the ongoing fall of western civilization and specifically everything else in it that I cherish in some way.
Here I’m in some lame foreign countries and I’m homesick, and I just go on for a second to say hi to my friends and there’s a million different things on how America is done for, my hometown is being overrun by leftist morons and crime, if I ever have sex or even talk to a woman again I’ll be accused of rape and crucified in feminist controlled courts, I’ll never be able to buy those guns I want when I get back and all the money I’m trying to save is increasingly worthless anyway, and the list goes on and on…
Then comes the butt-hurt responses when I reply with apathy, which is the best I can do really. Yeah, I’m totally with you on this one. I’ve just immersed myself so far into fiction and music that I have only vague snippets of what’s going on in the world, which is bad enough but I like it that way…
No more bad news? OK, then I have some good news to share. Its not real important outside my family, and its not gonna make any headlines anywhere. In spite of totalling 2 cars and losing her best friend to an od in the last 18 months, my daughter finished her 2000 hours of schooling/training on Friday and is now a certified Cardiovascular Technician.
It ain’t much, but its the best news we’ve had around here in quite a while.
Hey Claire,
I am pulling for you.
Like you, I have been having my share of stress issues too. Like you I am suffering from a barrage of unending bad news and the feeling of being out of control doesn’t help any either.
I remember years ago reading a memoir of a fighter pilot in Vietnam. He said that in the heat of action he would start to turn off threat warning sensors leaving him and his RIO open to attack. When asked why, the pilot said it was because there were too many bad things to deal with all at once. Like that fighter pilot you are now turning off some (not all) of those threat warning sensors.
I think it is good that you are dialing back a bit and I think that it will do nothing but good for you.
http://youtu.be/pQT-QFy5Nig
Words to live by.
Can I bring you some GOOD news?
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/03/nsl-found-unconstitutional/
I spent the last three days getting my adult daughter, her husband and granddaughter moved into my household. General economic conditions for all of us made this a positive move. Anyway, in those three days I basically missed all news, and did not go looking for any on the internet. Suprise! Nothing seems to have changed at all in those three days. Things in decline are still declining, the economy still sucks, the government still sucks, and the cute pictures of puppies and kitties on the internet are photoshopped. Guess I’ll just keep focusing on the family and keep preparing for a worse day to come.
Mostly I just forward jokes. But here’s a kitten.
Here’s some very surprizing, but very good news, out of NJ.
How long has it been since any of us have read the words “Court finds police can not…” and actually sided with a citizen?
http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/03/nj_supreme_court_police_cannot.html#incart_river_default
Sorry to hear it’s got you down too, Claire. Like many here, I too have been suffering from dystopia fatigue. Just the sheer volume–atrocious details wholly aside–is a major-caliber depressant unto itself.
Like many here, I can see that the “need” to know what’s going on is personally destructive. I hate it. I can relate with the idea that I just do it, any more, as a simple, prurient outlet for amusement, but in my case at least (I can speak for no one else, and do not presume to), I think I’m kidding myself, merely rationalizing an excuse for something I would rather not admit can consume and control me. I never–never–feel satisfied in absorbing more case examples of The Suck, even when so absurd that they really are funny. It was long ago that any example, anywhere, was illustrative of any sort of new principle.
So why do I still struggle, when I know I should just let it go and get on with Plan A (thanks, Joel)? The truth is that I don’t know. The best answer I can come up with lies in something Kent said here:
“If someone has information that some goons are planning to raid ME, personally and individually, tonight, please let me know. Otherwise…”
Sure. But how do you get from a general recognition of a real, present dystopia, with blindingly obvious trend lines that will eventually, some day, wind up at your very own door, to the day when that does in fact happen? There is a distance there, but it is unknown. And this collides with the realization that many of us have had, that if we are to survive a direct attack on ourselves, we need the advantage of awareness.
To use a Jeff Cooper example, we should be living our whole lives in Condition Yellow, which is metaphysically sustainable. Yellow (for those who do not know Cooper’s mindset concepts) is a general awareness that a fight might come to you today–from someone. “I might have to fight for my life today.”
And here, I think, is where it gets challenging. As the totalitarian state metastasizes, we start to see who it is that will most likely be our attacker. And that puts some of us automatically into Condition Orange, which is not metaphysically sustainable–it is quickly exhausting. (Orange is an escalation of awareness: it’s not “I might have to fight for my life today”; rather it’s “I might have to fight him, right there, for my life today.” If you realize who your likely attacker is, you will be less likely to dither and question yourself at the moment of truth.)
It’s one thing to “know” that you simply must distrust all–ALL–agents of the state. But how can you remain in Yellow when you know who is militarizing against you, and you cannot reasonably get away from them? I don’t think this is as easy as I try to convince myself it is. I find maintaining Condition Yellow in a crowd of complete unknowns to be easy and pleasant; in fact, I find it invigorating, because I tend to notice an astonishing amount of beautiful things, when taking everything in. But even one badge changes all that; he instantly becomes the most threatening person in the room, and I do have a need to know what he’s up to at all times until I can get away. I’m not sure it’s all that different, at the level of DHS and their 1.x billion rounds of combat ammo, or the always-present threat of a sufficiently crusading “child protective services” worker, or the local Gestapo who have recently been quite vigorous in following up whatever hysterical and random complaint that may hit the dispatcher.
And sheesh, I live in a place where that presence seems to be mercifully sparse, by comparison.
Like I said; I don’t know if this is the full explanation of why I can’t seem to reliably get away from this “need to know”; maybe this has something to do with it.
In any event, Claire: thank you again for observing, as you do. Such things are extremely important to me. By all means let’s focus on the constructive–even if that means deconstructing the poisonous as a painful but necessary effort.
She asked for no more bad news and all most of you did was twist it a litlle. Get this D.C. does not care if it is un or not. Rep. say yes then Dems say no. Thats the way it has been and always been . That’s it
Yikes!
If I’d read this a coupla days ago I’d not have sent you the stuff I sent yesterday.
Please forgive me!
Due to my bad memory the only effective way to stop is to delete you from my contacts.
But if you ever need some help as with the snitch book, you know how to get hold of me.
Dang but I did like wallowin’ with you…
I did a presentation on “technology” (by which they meant Internet, but I broadened to media ecology) for church men’s group, and ended up reading a bunch of Neil Postman. He makes much the same point in his “Informing Ourselves to Death” (not the same as his famous book Amusing Ourselves to Death).
Worth the read.
Hey lnf, could I trouble you to clarify? The answer to each question is, “No,” and the paper makes the fair point that information alone does not provide answers. What I don’t get is this: “Therefore…what?”
I only glanced through the paper, but I’m wondering what you two are driving at. Is it some argument AGAINST information? If the point is, “Don’t confuse information for solutions,” then I agree. But if it’s, “Try to have less information,” then I strongly disagree.
This, even as I agree with Claire that the purpose of information is not to drive us into misery! Anyway, now that you both provided us with the information that we have a ton of information, could you give me a clue as to what you believe the solution is? TIA.
Couple of things:
1) “Sampling error”. That’s my term for the phenomenon whereby you might take the most reliable car in the world, find the online forum discussing that car, and read so many complaints there you wonder why anyone would buy one. I think there is a lot of sampling error in life in general.
2) Bad news is for newbies: It actually is of some use for getting people to realize the world is not as advertised (in the schools, etc.), particularly if it comes from a reputable source. Reality newbies need to start somewhere. For those of us with a pretty good fix on the world, bad news has lost most of its utility.
3) Bad news is good news: Whenever I hear the latest bureaucratic outrage that happens in some institution e.g. government schools, I just smile. I think to myself, “another few homeschoolers have been created.”
But yeah, shut down or reduce the flow of bad news and go outside and garden or chop firewood or something. Much healthier and more relaxing. The world will stumble on in its own fashion whether we get excited about it or not.