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Don't Care
Oct. 11th, 2012 10:30 amDoping on the professional bicycle race circuit à la Lance Armstrong is in the media again, as though it's somehow news or a revelation. Don't care: I've written off nearly all sports as being immersed in doping anyway. And I refuse to invest any of my emotions in any event in which I cannot affect the outcome.
We learned today that the panda cub who died at the National Zoo suffered from complications due to immature lungs. Don't care. The cub is still dead. Millions of critters --and humans-- die every day: the only difference is that this one critter was cute and had its own marketing campaign. I should be sad because a PR department tells me I should? Please.
Locally, the Nationals baseball team has made it into the finals. Really don't care, except to the point that the games are screwing up local traffic patterns. It's very nice for the team owners and their employees, but for the rest of us? Whether they win or lose, I'm no better or worse off.
I know this sounds very sad & depressing, perhaps even angry, but really it's just an expression of disappointment. Why, why, why are these stories dominating our news cycle? Seriously, are any of us any better off for this news? What are we as individuals able to do with any of this new information? What exactly can we do differently which would either improve or correct any of these situations?
Maybe if I was a vet at the National Zoo, I could use the panda necropsy information to help the next cub, but I'm not and I can't. Perhaps if I had a friendship or professional relationship with a major sports figure, I could urge him/her to resist or stop doping before events, but I don't. Of what use is a news item when it can only be productively used by a handful of people out of the seven billion on the planet?
I do listen to news, economic and literature news items. Perhaps I can't affect earthquakes in Pakistan where thousands are killed, but I can send money to help. News that interest rates have risen or fallen is key information for the 100 million people in the US alone with mortgages, even more with bank accounts. Literature doesn't reach as many people as it once did, but still most of the planet can get their hands on a book --at least more can read than can nurse a panda cub to health.
This planet is one grand experiment in human policy. For every social ill we experience, multiple areas around the globe are experimenting with different approaches to its resolution. The best news I could ever hope to watch or listen to would be a cross-comparison of how different countries are tackling the same problem. There is no problem we face today which hasn't already been faced by others: why are we so hesitant to look at what has worked or not before diving in with our homemade solutions? This not-invented-here mentality has killed insular countries as often it has insular companies. We ignore the experiences of others at our own peril.
During the depths of the Obamacare debates two years ago, we nearly got there with a comparison between the healthcare systems of the US, Canada, Britain and France, but it wasn't well done and was dropped all too quickly. I want more like that on how to tackle poverty, financial imbalances, the drug trade, prostitution, hunger and more. Instead, we get Honey Boo Boo and Shark Week.
In my ideal world, I'd like every media producer to wake up tomorrow morning with these questions front and center: Is this really the best material I can possibly produce? Is this really what I want to be remembered for? Would I want my child to be watching this?
One can hope.
We learned today that the panda cub who died at the National Zoo suffered from complications due to immature lungs. Don't care. The cub is still dead. Millions of critters --and humans-- die every day: the only difference is that this one critter was cute and had its own marketing campaign. I should be sad because a PR department tells me I should? Please.
Locally, the Nationals baseball team has made it into the finals. Really don't care, except to the point that the games are screwing up local traffic patterns. It's very nice for the team owners and their employees, but for the rest of us? Whether they win or lose, I'm no better or worse off.
I know this sounds very sad & depressing, perhaps even angry, but really it's just an expression of disappointment. Why, why, why are these stories dominating our news cycle? Seriously, are any of us any better off for this news? What are we as individuals able to do with any of this new information? What exactly can we do differently which would either improve or correct any of these situations?
Maybe if I was a vet at the National Zoo, I could use the panda necropsy information to help the next cub, but I'm not and I can't. Perhaps if I had a friendship or professional relationship with a major sports figure, I could urge him/her to resist or stop doping before events, but I don't. Of what use is a news item when it can only be productively used by a handful of people out of the seven billion on the planet?
I do listen to news, economic and literature news items. Perhaps I can't affect earthquakes in Pakistan where thousands are killed, but I can send money to help. News that interest rates have risen or fallen is key information for the 100 million people in the US alone with mortgages, even more with bank accounts. Literature doesn't reach as many people as it once did, but still most of the planet can get their hands on a book --at least more can read than can nurse a panda cub to health.
This planet is one grand experiment in human policy. For every social ill we experience, multiple areas around the globe are experimenting with different approaches to its resolution. The best news I could ever hope to watch or listen to would be a cross-comparison of how different countries are tackling the same problem. There is no problem we face today which hasn't already been faced by others: why are we so hesitant to look at what has worked or not before diving in with our homemade solutions? This not-invented-here mentality has killed insular countries as often it has insular companies. We ignore the experiences of others at our own peril.
During the depths of the Obamacare debates two years ago, we nearly got there with a comparison between the healthcare systems of the US, Canada, Britain and France, but it wasn't well done and was dropped all too quickly. I want more like that on how to tackle poverty, financial imbalances, the drug trade, prostitution, hunger and more. Instead, we get Honey Boo Boo and Shark Week.
In my ideal world, I'd like every media producer to wake up tomorrow morning with these questions front and center: Is this really the best material I can possibly produce? Is this really what I want to be remembered for? Would I want my child to be watching this?
One can hope.
