“One of the worst things about civilization is that… the newspaper fetches you the troubles of everybody all over the world, and keeps you down hearted and dismal most of the time, and it’s such a heavy load for a person.”
Hmmm, care to hazard a guess regarding who authored of this quotation – and, more to the point, when?
The answer may surprise you. It certainly did surprise me. I’m betting that you unconsciously placed this quotation somewhere in the last 25 years. But the fact is this quotation is attributed to famous American author and humourist Mark Twain who lived between 1835 and 1910.
Mark Twain was one of the most quotable writers of all time. Most of his quotations are humorous observations on life and the foibles of the human race. It’s not often that you come across one as sobering as this particular quotation.
I wonder if Twain had any idea how well this observation would survive test of time or how many magnitudes greater the fact would be a century later. He may just be rolling over in his grave now as he realizes how prophetic his words were destined to become.
Technology has compressed the world dramatically. We now can learn of things that happen on the other side of the globe literally within minutes. And unfortunately, bad news travels fast.
I’ll be honest. I rarely watch the TV news and I only occasionally read a newspaper. The news bytes I get from the radio and the internet keep me in the loop as much as I care to be.
It’s not that I want to stick my head in the sand and shut out what’s happening outside my field of vision. I do care about the plight of people in underdeveloped countries. I do whisper prayers for an end to the conflict in countries that are locked year after year in armed conflict.
But for the sake of my sanity I have to consciously keep a filter in place so only a certain amount of the details of the bad news infiltrates my consciousness. It’s a self-preservation instinct that has evolved over time and is regularly reinforced.
Part of the problem, of course, is that the “news” industry focuses almost exclusively on bad news. It latches onto tragic stories and explores them from every conceivable angle for weeks on end. The media will no doubt argue that they have a responsibility to report the news, good or bad, and dig deep to show us the whole story. In short, “We’re only doing our job.”
But I’m enough of an optimist to believe that there are as many heart-warming stories out there as there are heart-wrenching ones. Is it naïve of me to believe that the media has an obligation to show a balanced view of the world? Maybe so, but I rather be naïve than jaded.
If I were to choose a metaphor for the media in this day and age, it would be sharks on a blood trail with the inevitable feeding frenzy. I wish that now and then they would run against the current and be playful dolphins showing us the uplifting moments of life. Perhaps then Mark Twain could rest easy and I’d watch the news more often.
On that note, I wish a joyful and restful Christmas to all and a New Year filled with playful dolphins as far as the eye can see!
~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog.
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Tags: bad news · Christmas · dolphins · Mark Twain · media · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · sharksNo Comments