Editor:
Re: Can we handle it, Bert de Vink, Observer, April 22.
Bert asks the question: “Can we handle this emotional roller coaster ride ....” referring to constant bombardment of the bad news foisted upon us by the media.
He is quite correct, in that it can become very intense and we run the risk of being desensitized by it all. It’s hard to shock us any more so the ‘jolt’ to get our attention is increased.
It has long been a journalistic truism that “... if it bleeds, it leads ...” and there is a lot of ‘bleeding’ today.
It all started with the “living room war” in Viet Nam where the public sat down to dinner watching the latest atrocity, carpet bombing and defoliating of the Vietnamese country side.
Who will ever forget the image of the little girl screaming, her clothes burned from her body by napalm?
In this age of instant global communication, we are get more ‘bad news’ than ever before; more tragedy, more violence and more human stupdity as people vie for their fifteen minutes of fame on the social media. Has the world “... gone bankrupt on moral, social and environmental standards” he asks?
Perhaps, as we seem to be losing our moral compass as a society.
Or it might simply be that there are more people today so there is an increase in negative human activity commensurate with that number.
However, there is a cure – a news fast!
Since by and large, we are individually incapable of changing the world, we have the freedom of choice to decide how much we will expose ourselves to what is incomprehensible at times. Shut off the TV, turn off the radio, do the crossword puzzles in the paper instead of reading the lead stories. Go for a walk and watch spring happen.
This is not easy to do for anyone politically and socially aware, but it works. Turn off, tune out and tune in to what is happening around you, the only area where you can make an impact. Become the change you want to see in the world. Let the “butterfly effect” work it’s magic.
Todd Birch
Quesnel