A Change of Station
Some time ago, and I
cannot remember how long now, I switched my radio to a news channel, hoping to
keep abreast of global events. I can assure you, it is not healthy.
Way back in March
2022, just at the advent of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, my life of
listening to BBC Radio 4 changed, as everything on the news had become
depressing.
The news brings the
world into my space, the knowledge of what is happening beyond my own; yet if
that knowledge does not engender wholesomeness, it can be troublesome. However,
I need sound around me, especially when I sleep, though I should also learn to
appreciate silence more.
The two peculiar
requirements for sleep, in my case, are sound and light. I like to keep some
light on, for I do not care to sleep in darkness. I have now switched back to
BBC Radio 3, the classical music station, where only snippets of the news sneak
through the cascade of string, wind, and percussion instruments, most of them
relaying the music of dead white men.
The Weight of Knowing
The sense of
injustice, unrest, violence, murder, terrorism, war, and general societal
unease seems to keep the world moving along a trajectory towards perdition. You
have to extricate yourself from these cycles of information before you become
absorbed in them.
Worse still is
knowing so much and realising there is little you can do to help. The powerful
abuse their power; the rich are consumed by their avaricious quest to acquire
more at the expense of everyone, including the poor; technology threatens
humanity in unfathomable ways; and the truth is lost to a systematic,
determined effort to make you believe something else. You almost begin to
question your own sanity.
I appreciate, though,
that I have the luxury of being merely a listener to the news, rather than a
participant in the disasters, tragedies, violence, mishaps, and accidents. That
is the privilege I hold: the ability to switch off, which so many victims rarely,
if ever, have.
An AI-generated infographic on the blog content. (Click to enlarge.)
Holding on to Hope
Yet you must hope
that there are many more reasonable people out there, not entirely powerless,
who know the proper use of their votes to choose rightly, having informed
themselves of the facts. How we despair when the rational fails in the face of
the irrational.
One aspect of that
hope, I suppose, is simply the acknowledgement, regard, consideration, and
respect we extend to another; the loving of one's neighbour, the sharing of
life's burdens, the knowing that we exist in society to foster goodness above
all else.
What appeals to our
best instincts must always be in the ascendant. Lawlessness, no matter how
pervasive, cannot set us back to the days before Noah's flood, even if all the
signs seem to point that way. I still have hope that humanity will find the
light, and the good conscience, to change for the better.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments are accepted if in context to the blog, polite and hopefully without the use of expletives.
Please, show your name instead of defaulting to Anonymous, it helps to know who is commenting.
Links should only refer to the commenter's profile, not to businesses or promotions, as they will NOT be published.
Thank you for commenting on my blog.