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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
But enough. If you’ve been sending me links to bad news, please stop.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
BUT!<\/i>, 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 …’<\/a>“<\/i><\/p>\n Well fine. To each his own. You want to wallow in news, I totally understand because I<\/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<\/i> 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.<\/p>\n Still. Stop sending me bad news.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n