news as entertainment value only

I currently have no access to news be it newspapers, radio or TV. I don’t have electricity and so I have to finish this article in an hour before the battery in this laptop runs out. I used to be a news junkie when I lived in the US and UK and had access to and was rooted in everything happening all around the world and there was hardly a fact I was not aware of!

Having experienced both phenomena, I conclude thus. The news we are fed is only what the feeder wants to give us. That may or may not be all the news, and the angle presented is only the perspective of the journalist presenting it or the editor or media owners. Due to the biases of what is presented, we form opinions and views, which we hold as gospel and mould our way of thinking. We lose our ability to rationalize and balance what is presented and come up with our own independent opinion.

I feel so much at ease not knowing what is happening, as it really should not affect my quality of life except as a form of entertainment, which I believe it merely is and nothing else. If one takes that view it is a form of entertainment that I am foregoing out of choice or necessity, and that is all.

Our knowledge is gained from learning, from interacting and being informed, but the only knowledge worth anything is that which we can use to make our lives or the lives of others better. The other bits of knowledge have no social benefit, and therefore becomes pure entertainment at best and a total waste of time at worst.

We humans must try and experience life in a different form from that we are used to so we can both appreciate the life we have, and also remove those that we really don’t need and sometimes could harm the quality of our lives. I like to think that I am a rational human being who wants what is best for me first before I let any excess flow to others! I like to lead my life based on that premise, but with an added caveat of attempting to be as little of a bother to others as I can or feel others have to go out of their way at a cost to allow me to have the best. I have no problem compensating others for services they render to me, in the form of my employees or others, they simply have free will and can choose to refrain and I can then choose to withhold compensation. Once we come to a rational balance in our lives we are able more easily to face the true challenges of living, which vary by degree for each individual.