Many people have a negative feeling about the world today. They see misery on the Internet and television and think that that footage represents the world. It's become so obvious now to be 'pessimistic' that anyone who is optimistic, like me, is considered a ‘naive deviation’. But a positive conclusion can also result from careful and intelligent considerations.
This year I quit following the headlines in the news, because I see a pattern of repetitions through the decades that bores me. Right now, with the Paris-incident, I see the lamentations and expressions of support on Facebook and i think, "Here we go again!"
The pattern, as I see it, looks as follows:
increasing emotions:
- perceive incident through various media,
- Develop angry and fearful emotions,
- develop opinions at home,
- Collect as many videos, quotes, headlines and cartoons for sharing at Facebook etc.,
- Sympathizing with the victims,
- pointing a scapegoat (mostly America, Putin of Muslims. Preferably all three.)
phase of mocking
- mocking the country, culture and customs applicable
- mocking national political ministers involved,
- Mocking national committees concerned,
- Mocking national military forces,
- mocking World leaders
increasing feeling of powerlessness:
- participating digital/live protest
- calling a national sense of unity,
- mocking the national unity feeling
- Laughing at various comedians that repeat the mocking in more intelligent way
- Not seeing the wood for the trees any longer
- developing pessimistic conclusions about Europe, America, national army, the UN, NATO and many international organizations working hard to clean up the mess.
After this last phase there is the moment insightful and contemplative programs start popping up on internet and TV. Historical and cultural viewpoints are considered and solutions are found in long-term strategy. It’s time for talk shows and documentaries. The same media enlarging the whole incident in the first place are now participating in this as well. Probably they have several ‘war-rooms’ in such editors-buildings.
But here is the problem, the very moment the "collective" - ‘we’ - returns in it’s own energy again - the moment it exhales so to say - and with that finding it’s own force again, on that moment that same media - from the first war-room again i guess - reports a next incident, which is enlarged again. The exhaling abruptly stops, is not completed, and anxious inhaling starts again.
Bottomline: we never find peace. And most importantly, never return in our own power.
Well, that is why I stept out of that ‘chain’. Not that I am in my power now but I must say that many is spared to me these days that doesn't really matter. For example I am the only person in my country who does not know what ISIS is (i’m not joking). Also, I know nothing about the Ukraine and Ebola. Because, again, these examples are patterns that keep on rising and disappearing, leaving a lot of people exhausted and not leading to anything. If the shit really hits the fan I’ll hear about it. What is far more interesting is to see the changing self-image and self-understanding of Muslims against the background of greater international pressure. And more interesting than calling Putin a 'dictator', a Muslim a ‘woman-hater' or Africa a "hopeless" continent is developing an understanding that different cultures have very different needs, needs that I can never understand from my own western point of view. I believe in Democracy, Human Rights and Separation of Church and State. Period! But that is not everyone’s believe. I therefore don’t hold the truth. And that's an exiting acknowledgement.
I wonder if you, with your negative feelings and opinions about the world, ever consider what the source might be of such opinions, as the examples supporting those opinions don’t originate from your own observation - unless you have super-powers, being everywhere at the same time. The examples are taken from reports of others, selected for you, from places you never visited. They come from journalists and press-agencies, with power-structures that you and I do not understand. From regions in the world with do’s and don’t's that you do not know of. And every time I talk to local people who live in the places that we are reporting about so negatively - i meet them frequently through my job with an airline - they often show that somewhat ashamed silence, wonder and sometimes anger, about mis-information in the headlines ... what they see in their hometowns and country is different.
So I question our ability to really know what goes on in the world and i state our dependency of the media. But anytime i do that, people respond irritated by stating that they damn sure have their own opinion about things! But in that sentence is a contradiction. It assumes that the ‘own judgment’ on headline-news is proof that one's opinion is independent. Because that implies the word 'own'. That, in other words, their ‘own’ judgment about ISIS, after independent research and reading, means that they think independently. But that's not true. Making your own judgment about ISIS, or Russia, is not a sign of independent thinking, but thinking about a topic that has been selected for you to think about. You are not independent. Our planet is huge, and not only consists of a few lunatics in a desert decapitating people, but is mostly created by people of good will. And while we are hysterically typing and responding on Facebook, our opinions and fears and anger, we have no clue how powerful we are; this big, beautiful planet continue to rotate in a mysterious universe, orbited by more hands reaching each other in love then pushing each other down.
Those few real problems in the world that really matter, need people who can focus their energy on it. By full inhaling and exhaling. Not by panting.
