Wednesday 20 July 2016

Doing Something Better Than Doing Nothing

When some people learn what i do to pay my bar bill they make a remark about not watching the news anymore as it's too depressing or moan about journalists only concentrating on bad news.  
Hard to disagree with the first point, the news can be depressing but i can shake my head at the second point, the news reflects what is happening in society and if bad things happen, then these bad things have to be reported.
Recently, it appears that the bad news has been coming thick and fast with Brexit, Orlando, Nice, Donald Trump, Shootings, Celebrity deaths, Climate Change, racism, Turkish coup, Austerity, Syria and Iraq so the feeling that things are spinning too fast for some is understandable.
The answer for some is to withdraw and stop reading newspapers and make use of the remote control when the introductory music for the news starts up.
As tempting that option may be, we can't stop the world and let anyone off as the World isn't stopping and we are stuck here turning with it.
The answer is to do the opposite of burying your head in the sand and engage with the things that we can do something about and just reluctantly accept that there are some events that we can't.
If America votes in the tangerine coloured lunatic then nothing we can do about it, same as if a nations military decided to have a go at overthrowing the Government or a religious zealot decides to please their God by killing as many people as possible.
There are some things we can try and influence by demonstrating, voting, petitioning or educating so while doing nothing and avoiding hearing or reading about awful things is always an option, doing something to try and not make them happen in the first place is a much better one.

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