Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Outrage

In the past several years I've noticed that a lack of comment on something or a lack of the desired response (unfettered rage apparently) to some horrible thing that happens in the world is perceived as a slight.  Someone, usually Fox news, comes up with something for us to be upset about someone, usually the President, not commenting on a thing to be upset about.  Why didn't you do THIS when I wanted you to? Why didn't you rage and foam at the mouth and have split pea soup come forth from your mouth when this happened?  

Why?  Why?
Matthew 11:16"But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market places, who call out to the other children, 17and say, 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.' 18"For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon!' 19The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.' But wisdom is proved right by her deeds."
This isn't a new thing.  It's an old thing.  An old trick to discredit someone you don't like.   Why doesn't he do this?  Why doesn't she do this?  Where is the outrage? 

Is outrage something we need to manufacture?  You can't be mad about everything if you want to be able to leave your house.  I can be upset about Sandra Bland dying in police custody without having something to useful to add to the conversation.  Sharing a post about Cecil the Lion doesn't invalidate anything I think or feel about Sandra Bland.  Yes, a person is more important than a lion, but that's not the point.  Not making a comment is not the same thing as not caring.   Much like sharing a post about Sandra Bland and not about a police officer who died in the line of duty .  It doesn't mean I don't care about cops being murdered.  It means I didn't have anything useful to add.   


I stopped watching TV news during the second Bush Administration because it made my blood pressure go up every time I saw it.  Yes, there were awful things happening in the 2000s, but that's not why.  The reason was the blatant, obvious propaganda.  You couldn't turn on a television without being subjected to it.  Things that were clearly being spun to generate fear and paranoia.  I'm not a fan of either, so I turned it off.  Print/online media is easier for me to filter.  

We don't all have to have an opinion about everything.  Really.  Politicians don't have to have an opinion about everything.  They have more ulterior motives than most people, but they have enough of those and speculating on why someone didn't respond in a particular way to a particular situation is just fodder for the 24 hour news cycle.  That's all it is.   Let's stop reacting to the reaction police.  

It's just bait for ratings.  Me? I want peace.  Peace doesn't often make the news.  I'll leave it off, and try to help people when I can. 




No comments:

Post a Comment