Are you sick of the news?

[xoxoxoBruce]

When I was young, I only took a passing interest in world events. I voted, but I was shamefully uninformed about the candidates.
In my twenties, I started taking an increased interest, probably because of Viet Nam. Watergate made me rabid and I voraciously consumed media.
35 years later, I find that I've become disgusted with the gumint, and helpless to do anything about the decline of western civilization. I'm starting to feel like Garfield (below).
Where do you fall on my curve?

[elSicomoro]

I keep a "healthy balance." I'm not out of the loop, but I'm not UT either.

[DanaC]

I was disinterested in politics until I hit my late teens. Then I was a fairly active member of the left....was member of the Socialist Workers Party for a while....went on demonstrations against the conservative government of the day....Then Thatcher was gone...it was like we'd won....But then somehow the tories kept on going....So I thought ok, look how bad the country has gottn surely surely they cant win another term. And it looked like they were finished yet somehow they clung to power despite the degeneracy of their reign.....When Major won the election in the midst of a recession with business going to the wall left and right and whole streets of houses up for auction because the owners had posted the keys through the door and walked away, I was devastated. I couldnt believe it. I had been an idealist then a realist and now was just defeated.

I pretty much stayed away from politics ( apart from the anti nazi stuff) and the news I just found depressing. Then there was a sense of change in the air and found my attention dragged back there again.....Labour stood to win by an historic landslide....Things could only get better! ran the slogan. For my entire adult life and most of my childhood too, the tories had been in office. I'd marched against them, I'd watched them fuck up entire towns I loved with their devastating attacks on the manufacturing industry. They'd lined their pockets and the pockets of their friends and written the book on sleaze and finally they were being pushed aside by a desire for change and a kinder vision of Britains future....This was huge.

...........Anyway.....Some stuff got better, some stuff got worse. Then the Prime minister I voted for, the leader of my political party abandoned many of the fundamentals of his party and his manifesto, his Home Secretary turned out to be somewhere to the right of Goebbels and my country has been coupled to a Juggernaut driven by a slowthinking incompetant driver who has clearly been drinking.

I am now totally hooked on the news. Its a compulsion. I am angry at my government. I am particularly angry at Blair. I feel a certain thrill at the political game being played out in front of me. Both in local terms and international. There's a certain electricity which seems to crackle in the media when a politician is soooo under siege.

[lumberjim]

ignorance is bliss...

i get much of my news here, or on howard stern of all places....and a little sports news on WIP 610 am

[OnyxCougar]

I have never been heavy into politics. The first president I was aware of was Reagan, the First PM: Thatcher. I never really paid attention, and my first vote was for Clinton. I was kind of stoked, feeling like I made a difference, then I learned the real truth. I lived down the street from John Major in England. I kind of followed the news, but never felt connected.

Then I came here. I stayed way out of the Politics forum, because I don't know anything, and I don't like giving largely uninformed opinions. I became more aware of current events, and now I'm so cynical and disillusioned that I don't trust in either govt anymore. The US govt is so corrupt that they don't even know the meaning of the word "honesty" and the British govt has a "Yes, Mr. Bush" mentality.

So I *am* tired. And I haven't even been paying attention that long. I feel helpless. I feel scared of what society and the economy is going to turn into. I'm scared that we've put ourselves into an irreversible position as global cop. It's creating so much havoc and hell that the terrorists wont stop and nothing and no one is safe, that we'll end up like Israel, with bombs and missiles every day becoming commonplace. It scares me that a draft may be instituted. Not because my children may go (they're both not eligible) but because other people's children will go instead, and people will die for the cause of economics and oil and someone else's freedom.

I don't know how to fix the problems. I don't know who does. I know the people that do know are not an option for me to vote in. And even if I voted, it wouldn't mean a thing.

[/misery]

[lumberjim]

OC,

if you don't cheer the fuck up soon, we're going to have to hold an intervention. get to a shrink....you're obviously depressed.

[OnyxCougar]

I'm really only depressed when I start thinking about things I can't change....like the world. All I can do is change my immediate environment, and I've recognized that since I learned about Steven's death nearly 9 years ago. It changed my worldview, my attidude, the way I live my life.

Day to day, I'm not depressed. In fact, today I feel great! A little bored maybe, but happy, secure, loved, and generally cheery.

I know when to go back on my Zoloft. This isn't it.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Who love ya, Baby?

[OnyxCougar]

<cuddles Bruce> You do, dear heart, you do.

[Beestie]

Its not so much that I'm sick of the news its that I'm sick of what passes for news these days.

I've lost a lot of confidence in the media over the years and no longer believe that they are reporting as much as they are advocating or advancing a position. I used to enjoy Fox/Hannity/etc. as much needed relief from CNN/Dan Rather/Peter Jennings/NYT/etc. but they have fallen into the trap of catering to the audience they created. Now, I really don't know where to turn for the straight scoop and I am weary of reading all of them and averaging it out.

I pretty much ignore the political stories which, unfortunately, includes anything coming out of Iraq.

I'll modify LJ's position somewhat and take the stand that ignorance is better than being a stooge for the left or the right.

[jaguar]

I do a fair amount of work that involves having live news feeds but outside that I mostly rely on weekly publications rather than daily ones.

[wolf]

I go back and forth between being a news junkie and being news ignorant, largely based on my time availability. If it's busy at work I'm barely cognizent of what the next patient's issues are, much less the issues of the day in the world at large.

[Catwoman]

"35 years later, I find that I've become disgusted with the gumint, and helpless to do anything about the decline of western civilization."

Who says you can't make a difference? I am passionately disillusioned with a populace overwhelmed by passivity and inaction. So many people hold (often brilliant) opinions that never make it into action - but thinking never changed anything (don't shout - devils advocate here!). Seriously though, at what point does a person lose their youthful optimism, passion, hope? When do we stop thinking we can make a difference?

[Undertoad]

I tried to change the world and then later found out I was wrong and if I'd changed it I would have wanted to change it back.

I tried to change the world and changed me instead.

I like the news because I know I don't understand the world or the people in it, and here are these people trying frantically to explain it to me.

My boots are not talking to me.

[Catwoman]

UT, your post made me stop and think for some time.

I firmly believe that nature is a process of correction, perpetually rectifying errors, imperfections. Humanity has brought with it many flaws: war, pollution, pain. Should we take steps to correct this? Or let nature go it alone?