Hangry and dissatisfied with the “news”

# Chapter 112

As I am looking at all the amazing reasons I have to be thankful today, it is easy. But then again I am in the West, with family, have enough for the moment, and am relatively healthy, and have general sense of wellbeing that my pastor and wife would attribute to God. I think that God likely had a hand in all the things I listed not just the last one. I also think that the last one has much more to do with the fact that I don’t watch “the news” as much as anything else. Because “the news” has one purpose in the modern world - to keep you hangry and dissatisfied, so that you will keep watching. My well addicted father is over there yelling about what they are “reporting” right at this moment.

I keep putting “the news” and “reporting” in quotes because they are neither. They sensationalize select topics and stories in order to maximize their viewership, not reporting the news at all. A small sample would include the focus on two shooter stories, one where a 17 year old boy shot and killed people, and one where three men shot and killed a person of another race. Not one single word about the 45 men women and children who died in Bulgaria yesterday. Not one single word about the coming collapse of Turkey our strongest and most important ally in the Persian gulf region. I could mention 1000 more high impact stories that did not get a single second of air time.

A recipe for thankfulness starts with limiting (or eliminating!) sensationalizing voices in your life.