11 comments

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  plonkee

  11 months ago

  I too am trying to keep away from the news. Not because I don't care, but because it's just too much and there's nothing I can do about it.
  
  I know as much as I'm ever going to about what wars are like without living in a conflict zone - people die, and nobody is really right, and the causes of the conflict date are old (tens/twenties/hundreds of years old) it's just all the same.
  
  It reinforces my understanding that no one can rely on the Americans, and that I'm really, really lucky to be more worried about whether my investments are doing well than whether my home is likely to be hit by airstrikes.
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  Curmudgeon

  11 months ago

  You know, Steve, I'm afraid I'm going to take a couple of exceptions here. First, there are a lot of things that I don't know about the Russia-Georgia conflict, but I suspect that few if any scenarios had Georgia seriously believing that any alliance with the West would protect them from trying to violently settle a civil war/foreign invasion.
  
  Second, you are certainly correct that our own day to day problems, large as they may seem to us, are trivial to many in the rest of the world. You're simply restating Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, and I for one feel infinitely fortunately that I was born in a country where I didn't have to worry about the bottom of that hierarchy (though unlike you, growing up I wasn't especially high up in that hierarchy). But while the days of the US being the single primary economic power may be numbered, we have had at least five such downturns in my lifetime, and as near as I can tell, none of them permanently eroded the collective dreams of our citizens.
  
  As for false prosperity, we are the people are parents warned us about. We created false prosperity by leveraging our lifestyles up to pennies on the dollar, believing that first tech stocks, then real estate, had a God-given right to 40 percent annual appreciation. The fact that the system didn't protect us from our own base impulses doesn't excuse those impulses. And you know something, we can get ourselves grounded and on the right path once again.
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  Ladyroad

  11 months ago

  More than anything else in all the world is being happy with what you have and thankful every day that you have it.
  
  For months after having my son I couldn't watch a movie or read a book where someone died. I cried when commercials were especially sentimental. My heart was so full from having my son that I couldn't stand the reminder that people grow up to kill one another as adults.
  
  I've balanced back out again, but my respect for life is still enormous. I, like you, cannot listen to stories or even watch the news because it is too much.
  
  But I'm not blind to what Americans are doing. I understand that one day we will pay for what we have done in Iraq and Afghanistan. I appreciate every day that I have and am thankful, but I do not forget that one day we will get what we deserve. Everything comes around eventually.
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  deepali

  11 months ago

  I take the opposite view, I think, from you and Plonkee. I watch the news because I think there *is* something I can do. In fact, there is something we can all do. We vote. We pay taxes. We make charitable contributions. But most importantly, we can listen, and we can be aware. Pain and misery in the world is not just created by conflict and violence. It is also created by ignorance and silence.
  
  Psychic numbing served us well when we were hunter-gatherers living in small insulated communities. But it's a different world now. I think we can evolve further to find a balance between paralysis and overstimulation, and I think you have touched on a part of it - being able to put our own worries/cares into a greater context.
  
  Perhaps my locus of control is too internal. Or maybe I'm just overly idealistic and unrealistic. But I think I'd rather that type of delusion than another.
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  plonkee

  11 months ago

  @deepali:
  It's not so much that I disagree with you, just that I don't need to watch the news to do those things. Well, if I'm voting maybe, but it will be one of many issues that I'm considering when I choose from a >2 but still limited number of candidates.
  
  I do wonder sometimes whether I'm washing my hands of things too much. But I still don't keep up with the news.
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  L@spillingbuckets

  11 months ago

  I know what you mean. I don't follow the Russian news as much as you, but when I heard about the airport being bombed I had very similar thoughts as this post. I actually heard the story as I was driving home from work past the airport - and I tried to imagine what it would be like to suddenly lose everything we take for granted.
  
  We are VERY lucky to live in America right now. I wish there was more we could do to help people directly.
  
  Pres. Bush was live on NBC last night from Beijing and he said he was talking to the Russian pres about how this is unacceptable. I hope they resolve it soon.
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  treadmill workouts

  11 months ago

  i Think war is just a ply between the big guys. Hey let's play a game of chess - i will declare war and you bombard a city. Who cares about those old people that doens;t have a home now . This stuff is better than Risk
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  bubelah

  11 months ago

  I didn't listen the Pres. Bush on NBC. I wonder if he realizes that war in Iraq and Afganistan are unacceptable as well, as Russian president told him a long time ago. I am sure our president took it to heart.
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  Frugal Dad

  11 months ago

  @Treadmill Workouts: You are correct that often time wars are started by the highest levels of two governments, but the casualties are felt by the very bottom, including innocent civilians caught between two factions. I think that is the saddest part of this, and any other conflict, even those that are necessary for self-preservation or to stop tyranny.
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  plonkee

  11 months ago

  @Bubelah:
  Excellent point. Every nation only does what it thinks it can get away with, but for countries that think they are superpowers (like the USA, Russia, China etc), that's a lot of stuff. Not everything, but a lot.
  
  Anyway, I'm much more interested in what's going on in South Ossetia and about breakaway states in general but I think that's just because I like unusual places.
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  deepali

  11 months ago

  Well, I think some distinction needs to be made between "news" and "the news". I don't watch TV news. But I stay up to date with alternative media. I can wholeheartedly agree with not watching CNN 24/7. Half the stuff on there isn't "news". But you have to "keep up" with something to actually be aware of what's happening. Unless you are omniscient. :)
  
  @ Plonkee - I agree. Superpowers tend to try to get away with a lot. And often succeed, with little backlash. As someone who comes from two former British colonies (3 if the US counts) and who works with Africa, I have personal experience with that.
  
  @ Bubelah - I agree, it is easier to tell someone else when they are in the wrong, than to admit to similar wrongs yourself. Though I do think this isn't comparable to Iraq/Afghanistan, but to Kuwait. Which was sanctioned... I think the global community bears culpability for some things.
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