Tag Archives: world events

The moment I’ve been waiting for

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I wanted it, but I didn’t think it was going to happen. Last February I wrote ‘Schoolyard rules’ and basically said that unlike in the movies, in the real world the bully usually wins.

I ended that post saying,

“If we want to see the feel good movie ending, it won’t be one hero protagonist saving the day. No it will be the band of brothers all standing up to the schoolyard bully. It will be all the kids in the schoolyard saying, ‘That’s enough!” It will be his own little gang deciding that he’s not worth supporting. It didn’t happen the first time around, maybe it will happen this time… but I’m not betting on it. I’m looking around the school yard and I just don’t see enough kids banding together, and I definitely don’t see enough adult supervision.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech at The World Economic Summit in Davos was a call to action, an invite for a band of brothers to take action. The only question now is if we get the movie ending or if the moment is lost in cowardice… and the bully still wins.

I’m hopeful.

Our inability to rationalize the irrational

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I found a letter to the editor that my dad wrote on September 13th, 2001,

In the aftermath of the horrific terrorist attack a few days ago, there seems to be a perception that the U.S. intelligence community had been completely unprepared for the magnitude of its ferocity and destruction.

The incomprehensible fanaticism motivating a large number of individuals prepared to commit their lives to such a suicidal and barbaric undertaking. presumably may have been considered an inconceivable scenario by intelligence strategists.

Nonetheless, the unthinkable has happened – which demonstrates clearly our inability to rationalize the irrational.

Abraham Truss, Scarborough (Ontario, Canada)

It was published on September 16th in The Toronto Star, page A12 in the Editorials and Letters section, changing only the opening sentence to clarify, “In the aftermath of the horrific terrorist attack in New York City last Tuesday…

The last sentence is chilling to me: “Nonetheless, the unthinkable had happened – which demonstrates clearly our inability to rationalize the irrational.”

As we approach 24 years after 9/11, it seems as though we are still committing irrational acts, and we are still incapable of rationalizing them. The news is filled with contrived rationalizations, profiles of killers, talking head debates, and biased perspectives inventing rhyme and reason for irrational acts. Reasons we search for, but are clearly unable to meaningfully comprehend. And still the irrational behaviours continue…

I declare a news free day

I need a break. The fact is that I’ve never been a fan of the negativeness of the news. Before the pandemic I rarely watched news on television, now my wife watches the evening news and I join her. I hardly ever searched for daily news articles on my phone, now I check my Flipboard news 2-3 time a day, and I follow the stats of the Coronavirus.

Before this pandemic hit, I used to keep abreast of what’s going on in the world by checking out the trending hashtags on Twitter. Most of these are fun, but if a big world event happened then I could search that hashtag for a link from a reliable source and get caught up.

Today I’m doing none of that. Today I will enjoy a day knowing that the world will get along fine without my attention. Today I will permit myself to be blissfully ignorant to what’s happening beyond my work day and family time.

The news can wait… I’m taking a break.

Ps. Here’s Some Good News that I watched a few days ago… this I could get used to watching regularly, after my break today.

Fed up with the news

I don’t watch the news, don’t listen to the radio, but I want to know what’s happening in the world. So I do two things on my phone, first I have the news App and Flipgrid set up on my phone… swipe right from my home screen and there are the headlines. Then there is always the search feature on the Twitter App with the news column.

I don’t spend a lot of time going past the headlines, but I do look a little deeper when major events happen. I also admit to metaphorically slowing down to see the accident at the side of the road, when a certain political leader tweets something outrageous, but the line between news and entertainment blurs here. It would be fully laughable if it wasn’t so unsettling.

This news-through-headlines (and trending hashtags) approach keeps me away from the painful aspects of the news that I’m fed up with, such as:

1. Headlines that belong in Tabloids such as, “This Facebook Post Almost Broke The Internet.” Or: “12 Products You Can’t Live Without.”

2. An overemphasis on Hollywood stars, musicians, and royalty.

3. An embarrassingly morbid focus on the macabre: Shootings, tragedies, and death.

But even this approach doesn’t allow me from escaping the idiocy of the news as described in this tweet:

It doesn’t stop the glorification of horrible people.

It doesn’t prevent me from seeing an onslaught of negative headlines about tragedies around the world.

Yes, some tragedies are relevant to the world, and a few need to make the headlines. But it’s time for news outlets to think of the turmoil and upset they leave behind when they use a ‘If it bleeds, it leads’ attitude. It’s time for news outlets to stop creating click bait titles. It’s time for news outlets to realize the influence they have, and to be more concerned with their influence, and less concerned about getting our attention at any cost.

In the mean time, I’ll try to do my part and avoid clicking on links that I think undermine valuable news sharing for the sake of one more view of advertising on a web page.