Quite Simply the Road to Happiness?? No News Is Good News.


I read this blog, The Economy Isn't Happening, almost every day because I think he's funny a lot of the time, he's a guy so I get some testosterone-laden perspective in my day, and although he states he's NOT Robert Goulet I'm secretly hoping that he is and will one day belt out "If I Would Ever Leave You." I also sense he has a kind heart.




His latest post is centered on the idea of not inundating ourselves with news--and by that, he means bad news--and to go on living our lives surrounded by daily, undramatic, non-crime-ridden, non-war mongering activities. He believes we and the world would be much happier.

For the record here, I don't agree with him 100%, but as I said I like the guy's writing and I'm willing to give him what small forum I have to share his point of view. I don't think a person needs to watch CNN 24/7, nor do I believe that necessarily makes a person informed. What I do believe is that the world does not need us to watch TV or listen to its woes every day. What the world needs is for us to give a damn and to participate in the work of the world. Remember Ebenezer Scrooge from a short three weeks ago? " Business! Mankind was my business!"

For those of you who may feel better knowing we are not the only generation to feel overwhelmed by the horrific acts of mankind, I offer a Henry James quote, "Evil is insolent and strong; Beauty enchanting but rare, Goodness very apt to be weak, Folly very apt to be defiant, Wickedness to carry the day; Imbeciles to be in great places, people of sense in small, and mankind generally unhappy. But the world as it stands is no illusion, no phantasm, no evil dream of a night, we wake up to it again forever and ever; we can neither forget it nor deny it nor dispense with it."

For anyone not on a news blackout, there's over 200 children dead and over a thousand children wounded in this latest Middle East conflict. Last I've heard 14 medics killed. ABC NEWS website has a list of humanitarian organizations that are helping. So run on over to Johnny Truant's House of Idiocy for a laugh and on the way back see what help you can offer for these children trapped in the middle of war. Politics aside, I think if grown men want to get into a pissing contest about geographical borders they ought to get in the ring and duke it out. Like real men.

Comments

  1. See, now, this is where you and I differ. I do agree with this handsome gentleman 100%.

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  2. I went to see "Waltz with Bashir" this afternoon with Le Framéricain so your reflections upon the latest wholesale killing of children euphemistically referred to as "collateral damage" is particularly apropos.

    I believe that war should be against the law and that all war-generating disputes should be channeled through The Hague. I do not believe in destroying social infrastructure for any reason whatsoever.

    The other day on PBS I heard a man state that peace could break out in 24 hours, exactly the way wars do. It is only we who are stopping it from doing so. I could not have agreed more.

    Lovely, touching post, Dearest Distracted.

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  3. I read, I knit, I watch movies and I work. I don't have my head in the sand, but I can only take so much bad news. There is no easy answer to the issues of violence, greed and the struggles in other parts of the world-just as there aren't easy answers to these questions here. I have hope though. Plenty of hope.

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  4. I don't watch much TV and generally glance at the newspaper with disgust. Fear mongering seems to be status quo, doesn't it.

    Have you read the War Prayer by Mark Twain? He mandated that it could only be published after his death because only dead men can tell the truth...

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  5. Love the way you wove your commentary, the James quote, and the photos in this post. Thanks, too, for the links.

    Two ways of handling tough news each relating to birds: ostrich and chicken (little). At least chicken little's reactionary ways have a slight chance of being a service to others....

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  6. I agree with him and I have done it. 10 years ago I gave up TV because it ruled my world. I also gave up reading the news because it always depressed me and made me feel hopeless. I am a much happier person having given news up. I always know about the really important things that happen from the web, so I help where and when I can, but I mostly tend to my own heart and world and thereby I believe I affect the rest of the world positively.

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Hey, thanks for your thoughts and your time:>)

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