A habit I keep slipping into is spending way too much time following the news. It is easy to lose track of just how much of the day vanishes into reading newspaper articles and catching the next news bulletin. But there is also a hidden cost of wasting brain time trying to solve the world's problems. The reasons for not doing this are obvious - but let's list them.
1. You can almost never take any action to solve problems raised by the news.
2. The news concentrates on the negative and talks up problems and conflict.
3. The news deliberately distorts the agenda in favour of the rich and powerful.
4. They get a lot of facts wrong anyway.
So basically the whole thing is more or less guaranteed to give you a false picture and one that is not going to do you any good.
The big story at the moment is the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. The bones of this story are straight forward. A group of people from Europe turned up in Palestine in the forties and started seizing control by force. They have succeeded in creating a state there, but have infuriated the original inhabitants. It is a blindingly simple problem, and the solution is equally simple. The Israelis have to either return what they have taken or adequately compensate their victims. Otherwise the conflict will continue.
But the news story never portrays it in this light. While there is undoubtedly some pro-Israeli bias in the reporting, the bigger problem is pro-sensationalism bias. The big horror stories dominate the narrative. The attack on the athletes in Munich by the Palestinians; the massacres of Palestinian Refugees in Sabra and Shatila and the current attack on Gaza are all big and spectacular examples of man's inhumanity. They get huge coverage. They wind up your emotions. But they don't help understand the problem.
I have wasted numerous hours over the last couple of weeks postulating imaginary scenarios whereby the two sides could be persuaded to stop killing one another. Nobody is going to listen to my ideas, still less implement them.
This isn't to say that current affairs are unimportant or that actions we take are meaningless. It is just that the news is a distorting lens through which to view the world. So I have stopped watching and reading.
Photo credit: Lee Jordan via photopin cc
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