Don't Care
Oct. 11th, 2012 10:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bjarvisDoping 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.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2012-10-11 03:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-11 04:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-11 04:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-11 04:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-11 08:22 pm (UTC)One can only wish for such a world.
no subject
Date: 2012-10-11 09:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-11 11:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-11 11:29 pm (UTC)I can affect the outcome of an election with my vote, however small an influence it might be. There was no means or method for me to rescue a cub. I will be involved in the former because I determine it's a good thing for me, but I refuse to become invested in the latter just because lazy media loves cheap-to-produce emotional sob stories.
Pandas ,there is a bigger picture even if the media did not present it well
Date: 2012-10-20 10:29 pm (UTC)The panda issue is different. I will note though, that if the panda were not a cute cuddly animal, few would probably care and it would not make the news. The panda is a bigger issue though, and yes, you can have an impact and what happens with them is part of a bigger issue. Pandas are endangered. The breeding program is important. The panda is an example of how humans are affecting our planet. In that respect they are important "ambassadors" and witnesses of the effects humans have on our environment. That environment we must live in, too. It will come back to haunt us (already is actually)if we are not careful. Scientists are talking much about the extinction and genetic changes of amphibians caused by human pollution of their, and ultimately, our environment. I agree with your other friend who suggested more NPR. Maybe Diane Rehm can make you understand the importance of other issues. You could skip that show too if you like though, just don't try to convince others pandas are not newsworthy. Love ya, and you better treat me well at the next square dance or I will give you a panda whupping.
Re: Pandas ,there is a bigger picture even if the media did not present it well
Date: 2012-10-20 10:44 pm (UTC)Because it was not even a half-story, it was worse than no story at all, IMHO.
I listen to Diane Rehm's program a great deal, although I usually turn it off when she starts taking calls from the public: too many people have a tendency to ramble, to be utterly unfocused and to spew uninformed rumours, and it drives me nuts. If I'm going to take the time to call into a national radio program, I'm going to concisely speak my piece as clearly as possible and try to be at least half-informed before dialing. Diane keeps most people in line but every call-in show on the radio --NPR and otherwise-- tend to suffer the same problem. Thank god for podcasts: I can skip over the weak portions while keeping the important parts.