By Keith C. Milne
As much as I wish to stay informed, it doesn’t seem to matter what source I turn to for learning about current events and news because it’s all bad! My goodness, it’s gotten bad out in our world. When I say world, I mean at every level. Doesn’t matter if you live in the United States, Canada, France, the U.K., Australia, or are living in dirt poor Somalia, your life has gotten harder, more expensive, no longer comes easy, and what can now be accomplished on any given day, now costs more than ever.
Inflation from post COVID spending and pent up consumer demand, combined with Putin’s war against the people of Ukraine, means products and services are harder to come by, take longer to manufacture, longer to ship, and are more expensive than ever! The job markets after COVID were empty, then partially filled, and are now partially filled at home, perhaps permanently. Companies that are concerned more than ever about employment supply chain issues are even beginning to take a hard look at–and have begun purchasing–robots at an increasing level to trim manufacturing costs, and cut the costs of employing humans!
We are now beyond just hearing about global warming and climate change, and we are witnessing and experiencing the beginning effects of this phenomenon first hand on a more frequent basis. More powerful tornadoes more often, ditto with hurricanes, as well as torrential rain and flooding, but not before living through years of historic drought are now our norm for weather!
Mass shootings are happening at a dizzying pace with over 600 per year since 2019, and 40 so far just this month of January 2023, and the month isn’t over yet! Police brutality on the rise, MAGA crazies in congress, smash and grab crimes are now common, and the rise of Neo-Nazi’s here in America, along with the rise of antisemitism and Asian hate crimes, and women losing their reproductive freedom after being granted that freedom 50 years ago! A serial liar is allowed to serve as a congressman, COVID and all it’s variants are still running amok despite high levels of vaccination, book banning about minority and homosexual issues is a huge growing industry in the heartland, and the main person responsible for starting the biggest divide our country has seen since the civil war, Donald J. Trump, STILL HASN’T BEEN HELD ACCOUNTABLE for all the damage he has sewn seemingly into the very fabric of this country!
Whew! That’s quite a laundry list of negativity and of events and happenings and ongoing threats to our democracy, and for all of the other democracies worldwide for us to deal with, isn’t it? Seriously, this is a lot for the media outlets to comb through and cherry pick news stories for our collective daily dose of scary and negative information. Herein lies what I consider to be the single biggest contributor to humankind’s current condition: holding negative thoughts in our consciousness more often than not.
Turn on any television and it won’t be too long before the negativity train begins. Little by little, that screen of programming is not only beaming at you whatever programming someone else has decided will be the story or news of the day, but it will, over time, program YOU to think and believe in certain things and in certain ways. For example: Fox news vs. MSNBC. I watch both. Fox is far more about making hyperbole out of nothing and also of taking every little thing that they can latch onto and present “it” as “the problem” or at least as a problem worthy of your consideration. Of course, all the problems are the liberals fault, Obama’s fault, President Biden’s fault, Hunter Biden’s fault, or Hillary Clinton’s fault!
MSNBC is far more likely to completely and utterly tell you things that scare you about the world, about who’s running the show in congress, or about what the GOP is planning to do next, but it is all based in fact and can be fact checked. This has been my own personal observation. I can assure you that FACTS mean everything to me and they should to you as well.
However, this isn’t meant at all to be about what news outlet or venue you do, or do not view. Rather, it is all about how it impacts that way we all think, what we think about, and how we view the world. Depending on where we get our information from, we end up either armed with the truth or just an amalgamation of misinformation, conspiracy theories and lies, with a little truth sprinkled on top as a garnish.
In my example, two MAJOR news outlets directly compete for your attention everyday, and both are synonymous with the two major political parties in the USA. Fox as the main GOP channel, and MSNBC as the Democrat channel. Is it any wonder that our country is so evenly and neatly divided? I don’t think so at all. We hear completely different information and/or facts from these two outlets. MSNBC with facts, Fox with the “Alternative Facts,” or Rupert Murdock’s set of facts for the red states to stew over everyday.
So, two main parties, two main news outlets, two different points of view, and in the case of the Fox news watchers, here’s a news flash for you folks: you’re not ever hearing all of the news or getting all of the facts! All of the January 6, 2021 insurrection hearings were selectively preempted for you by Fox! Did you even know that? Yep, while watching them, I was curious about Fox and how they were presenting the hearings. Well, surprise! They weren’t even airing them! All other networks did, but not Fox. That network, reflecting ONE MAN’S political ideology about Trump, Rupert Murdock, decided that his viewers didn’t even need to be bothered by the hearings. Apparently, Mr. Murdock felt he knew best regarding what half the country should see or should concern themselves with.
Up to that point, I had been pretty convinced that Fox was the most biased news outlet out there, and this incident provided definite proof of my theory. Half the country potentially didn’t even know the hearings were being aired while they were watching some game show or soap opera or trashy reality show! Nope! Fox did not give their viewers the courtesy of letting them watch the hearings of the January 6th committee and the painstaking, meticulous investigative process the entire committee engaged in and logically presented for the entire country to learn about. It’s no wonder, since by this action, we now know that Murdock must be a party GOP person, not a country first person, because the hearings that he didn’t want half of America to see and be able to digest for themselves, were the events leading up to the insurrection, and then the events that happened during and after the insurrection. After seeing all the facts laid bare, they left no doubt in my mind, and many others’ minds who was ultimately responsible for the insurrection: then President Donald J. Trump!
What we see and hear all the time has a profound impact on our mental health, our behavior, and our choice making. Our choice making, in turn, shapes our perceived reality. That perceived reality is a continuous feedback loop about the world that we are living in and, if what we are seeing is not in sync with our perceived reality or what we believe should be but isn’t, then we begin looking for reasons why. If at the same time, someone begins whispering into your ear that “the Jews,” “The Blacks,” or “The Gays,” are why things are the way they are, it doesn’t take long before anger starts to set in and become another variable to factor into the picture, particularly if the person or source doing the convincing presents their information in such a way that causes you to take pause because you can neither confirm nor deny the truth of such information–well, you see where this is heading? Hitler did this in Germany citing all Jews as “the problem,” and you know the history of how that turned out!
I’ve said it in previous posts and I’m going to say it again! Be careful what information you let into your mind. If you know an information outlet has a reputation for bias or one sided viewpoints or selective information, like not airing the hearings, then either stop choosing that outlet for your information, or at the very least, CROSS-CHECK your info against another or multiple other sources.
Yes! I know it’s work and I agree that it shouldn’t be! But I think it’s HIGH TIME that ALL OF US step up and become better citizens. That means staying informed. That brings with it an additional responsibility to become informed by and with facts, NOT misinformation, disinformation, propaganda, and lies.
Most importantly, it is imperative that aside from staying informed in an unbiased way as possible, that we limit bad news and negativity in our thought processes. Especially because most of us are conditioned to look at the television most of our day or as often as we can get away with. Doing this gives us a much shorter attention span than we otherwise would have, causing us to half-listen more often that we are aware of. There are so many extremely negative and scary events happening each day now, that doing this can cause us to habitually hold this negativity in our minds. It isn’t unlike a negativity storm or the constant wind of negativity.
Much of what we view causes a fear response or triggers anger (fear based) and feeling helpless, angry, depressed, sad, panicked, or violent doesn’t help but creates more of the same when those around you respond to your verbal and physical manifestations of this fear. Some take up arms and go out to shoot as many people as possible before killing themselves, others just whine and complain ENDLESSLY, always seeing the glass half-empty instead of half-full, and inflicting their fearful commentary on everyone at every turn, resulting in negative responses, and ultimately leaving the person feeling even more isolated.
Negativity, thinking horrific, sad, heavy, dark stuff all the time only brings more of the same. I also believe that positivity is possible to hold in one’s heart and mind, but takes much more effort. The degree one can continually have or hold goodness in one’s heart and mind is the largest determinant of having a marginal existence versus a good existence versus a noteworthy existence versus an amazing and stunning life! The more goodness you hold in your heart and mind and exude outward with your personal existence towards the world and others will determine which of those paths you end up on.
No one person, guru, shaman, wizard, or author can definitively nail down why this is, but it has been recognized as a truism and written about many times before. I have experienced both sides of the coin more than once in my life, and continue to struggle to hold the positive dominantly most of the time. ESPECIALLY NOW! Walking the line between sanity and staying informed is getting harder for me all the time.
I think it is imperative that we recognize this truth, and as global citizens do all that we can within our individual abilities to be positive people. To know what goodness is and embrace it wholeheartedly 99.9% of the time. TO DECIDE TO BE kinder, gentler, more forgiving, more flexible, and the biggest thing all of us can do all of the time: THINK ABOUT AND HOLD IN YOUR HEART AND MIND WHAT YOU WANT TO HAVE HAPPEN AND SEE IN THE WORLD, NOT WHAT YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD AND NOT HAVE HAPPEN! THAT IS YOUR TASK!
The end is always near, but the final chapter hasn’t been written yet. Let’s all collectively write it now by deciding we are going to be better people one day at a time and watch our world begin to reflect what most of us are holding in our minds and hearts most of the time.
Nothing good comes easy. All the work is worth it. You can do it! Yes you can! Together we can create a world that is far less violent, far more in balance, and reasonable and humane for most of us most of the time!