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This
Month's Article
The
News is not "New"
After
I get up in the morning I go wake up my computer. I check the
New York Times to make sure that California has not slipped
into the ocean, I check to see if the balance of terror is
still balanced, I go to The Huffington Post to learn which
Republicans are now criticizing Bush, and then I check out
the NOAA National Weather Service web site to see if the rain
falling outside is thirty percent rain, fifty percent rain,
or perhaps sunshine. In the back of my mind I am hoping for
something out of the ordinary – some
great evolutionary breakthrough, something to knock human consciousness
off its track....Then I go about my daily routine.
All
news from all media if taken together, presents very little
that is new. To me, all news resembles a school of fish in
a vast ocean — lots of individuals, but only one collective
mass moving together driven by a mass instinct. Sometimes sunrays
glisten off the reflective scales of the fish, but all in all,
the news just darts here and there instinctively trying to satisfy
its hunger and propagate itself. So the news is simply a mirror
of human society and consciousness, conditioned by history, habits,
instincts, emotions and the boredom that thirsts for entertainment.
Yet when people look at the news or read the news, they are always
hoping to be surprised, always hoping to find something new and
unexpected; something to lift them out of the present routine;
something to stir the imagination. It must be called “news,” not
for what it is, but for what people wish it were. If people
didn’t
feel so trapped by the monotony of life they wouldn’t
be so hungry for “news.” People
even greet each other saying, “What’s new?”
That
which is new in society is the product of thoughts and actions
that seek to free people from the mindless school of fish that
blindly moves through the ocean. At best, news
commentators or bloggers attempt to be the psychoanalysts or
conscience of society. However, the focus is always on the nuances
and frustrations in a world of sameness. All diverse ideologies,
all the politics and relationships that drive the news, all the
religious doctrines, all the ill-will and injustice, and all
the emotions that create the excitement of fear and contentiousness
that people find so stimulating, are old and backwards-looking.
The school of the news is just teaching one lesson — that
in the perpetual motion we feel from day to day, the individual
has no power.
Why
do we not have a “news” that is new and empowering?
Why are people not demanding of the best minds and leaders to
find a way out of the misery and suffering caused by perpetual
ignorance and blindness? What people really want from news is
new hope, are new perspectives that show that there really are
solutions to the problems paralyzing human welfare everywhere
in the world. People want to know that there are people unselfishly
working to improve the human condition. Let’s face it,
it is not in the interests of either the established political
systems in any country or in the interests of the media to empower
people to think for themselves or to have hope in the future.
The word, “hope” has even mutated into a popular
code word used by politicians who are seeking to rationalize
failed policies and justify limiting human freedom, while trying
to make people accept their misery. The news media and the blogosphere
thrive on conflict — battles between adversaries and perceived
powerlessness are their food.
So where
can one find real NEW news? Look outside the news media and
beyond political rhetoric machines. What is new is the documented
proof that people are working untiringly to solve problems of
the world. Visit the websites of non-governmental organizations
that are working to solve health threats, to promote human rights,
to combat poverty and ignorance, to save the environment, to
investigate intelligent and spiritual approaches to better relations
and to saner ways of living. Read the mission statements and
accomplishments of the many organizations that have taken on
a world problem and are trying to solve it.
“News” is
only new when it breaks our old notions about the direction
of world events, and about our own possibility to influence
them. When a fresh perspective replaces our fear and uncertainty,
we may see alternative scenarios and new ways of responding.
When we can intelligently and objectively view world events,
we may stand apart, and no longer be swept along in a mindless
school of fish. Breaking free, we may even find a cause to
work for that gives us a sense of empowerment. The search for
real news has the power to make one a new and independent thinker.
©
2006 Richard Sidy
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