...is the news becoming more dark, more depressing and overwhelmingly difficult to digest? I find myself increasingly reluctant to scan internet news sources, watch tv news, read the scrolling headlines at the bottom of a tv screen. It seems to predominate on the negative. Look, I'm not Pollyanna and I don't expect happy sunshiney information every moment. I also wonder at the magnitude of that which is anything but positive.
The evening news is on. Another school shooting took place today with 7 dead thus far.
The Trayvon Martin case: murky in detail, heartbreaking in scope. It is every parent's nightmare. Why was Trayvon picked as the poster boy for something that happens all too often? He looks like a sweet, unassuming child. He looks like your child or mine. It's as simple as that.
Yesterday, a headline scrolled across the bottom of one of the cable new channel about a father and step mother holding his daughter hostage, starving, abusing her. She weighed 70 lbs when she escaped. She's 15.
Our troops continue to die overseas and for what? There's always talk of another front, another war, another nation we'll have to protect from themselves. Yet we seem unable to take care of our own.
Then there is the more mundane, not unexpected news about taxpayer waste. The GSA (General Services Administration) spent $823,000 taxpayer money on a retreat in Vegas in 2010. Nobody sanctioned this.
Then there's Middle America. We aren't in recovery but the 1% are.
Sunday night, "60 Minutes" aired a follow up episode on contemporary art purchases and the money to be made. It was all about the very wealthy speculating on what I perceive to be cutting edge crap. Apparently, Morley Safer and I think alike. He was dismissive of much of the contemporary art sold in the early 90s. It came back to haunt him during in this episode. He good naturedly acknowledged the art he disparaged had increased in value by the tens of millions. But, he didn't acknowledge it was worth it.
13 comments:
I love the Paul Cumes "Kitty" you posted and visited his blog.
Other
I believe our connected world and 7/24 cable news has us receiving news unlike anything in the past. I still remember learning in a documentary that most (I'm not positive it was a majority but polling back then is not like today) Americans did NOT know where Pearl Harbor was when it was attacked. Young people dying is bad anytime.
24/7 news. Yes, that makes sense. One does have to fill the void and bad news sells. I just have a hard time with its relentlessness.
Some stories, like the squeezing of the middle class and the tendency of the Supreme Court to support the Dark Side, directly affect the quality of our individual lives. Because of that, it's easy to believe that other tragedies, even unlikely and far away, could happen to us as well. I watch much less news these days; if I'm reading I can at least quit a story when I've had enough. When media do run positive stories, they sometimes cheer me up but often seem trivial, or just not enough. The art story originally may have been an effort to "brighten" the news. Looks like this art is another toy of the rich, and it has value if they think it does. At least it's not make-believe, like some of the financial game-playing that made Wall Street rich. Good thought-provoking post.
Thank you for that. I almost didn't post it as I felt somewhat whiney. It's hard to be upbeat when you're surrounded with negativity. I'm a half empty cup girl always shooting for half full.
I love the Paul Cumes "Kitty" you posted and visited his blog. Wow. Great stuff. As for the news, I'm with you. If it weren't for bad news, we wouldn't have any news at all it seems.
Well, I think there is intention behind it all. Please, please watch this TED talk by Peter Diamandis, who wrote the Abundance of the Future.
http://www.ted.com/talks/peter_diamandis_abundance_is_our_future.html
I stumbled across his work several years ago and really like it. At the time, he was living in Santa Barbara and much of what he painted was familiar to me. He gave me permission to use it so I do. His new work is wonderful. He has since moved to Rhode Island. He's a youngin'...I'm thinking mid30s.
Thanks Ruth. I watch and it is a positive presentation.
I'm a hand wringer. I need reminding there are other ways to see things.
I'm just finishing the Steve Jobs bio by Walter Isaacson and it's one of the most inspiring, compelling books I've ever read. Why? Because no matter whether he was a a-hole, a genius, a temperamental brat, Steve Jobs was a problem solver. He believed in getting things done.
This reinforces that attitude.
Sadly, because good, positive news doesn't "sell." People don't want to watch that. They want to hear about rapes and murders and other terrible things.
The only news I watch is the Daily Show or the Colbert Report, because it's funny. Otherwise... forget it.
I include those guys for total and complete comic relief. I am somewhat addicted to hard news now. It's the plight of my demographic. No idea why but it's always been so.
"if it bleeds, it leads" really is true.
I so agree it is very depressing. I choose to not go looking too far for news and keep it local. It might be all true but where the heck is the good news? As for art it's in the eye of the beholder I guess. I do my own now. It's crap too but at least it doesn't cost me anything, lol
I wish I could stay local for good news. Our local paper serves an area of about 40,000 people. At its core is an editorial policy of printing the most outrageous angry letters, printing polarized columns on everything from politics to whether or not to turn the street lights back on at night. Inotherwords, it thrives on controversy. It really sucks.
Post a Comment