Where the Hel have I been? What an excellent question.
Several years ago I stopped reading/watching/absorbing The News (which I capitalize mostly because I see it as pretty much a unified blob-like entity). There are a number of reasons for this – I’ve pontificated previously about my belief that The News is really a deception – as though what you’re receiving is some kind of comprehensive and unbiased reporting, which is impossible. Yet, the most prominent reason for this excommunication of a sort was that the only purpose The News seemed to serve in my life was to make me feel like washed-out shit. When I stopped pursuing the smorgasbord of governmental follies, political weasel-wrestling, eco-nightmare statistics, recipes for empty capitalist success, vapid celebrity infotainment, and meaningless civilizational blither, all liberally seasoned with enormous chunks of fear-mongering (crime! death! blood! sharks!), I felt better. I’m not necessarily saying that this approach works for everyone, but it worked for me. While I’m fairly sure The News sucks like a Hoover overall and is generally unhealthy for most, I personally found that it made me feel spiritually and emotionally dead. Zombie dead. Walking nightmare dead. Vacuum in the pit of my innermost soul dead. Like high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated canola oil, it’s a poison best left off my plate. So – I stopped consuming it. I began to choose my media intake with meticulous, obsessive care. And when the wailing masses began to worry about me losing my grip on “the world around me”, I assured them that relevant world events were not lost on me – purely by virtue of living in the world and in my communities I heard what I needed to know about the major patterns, events and movements in the world. I still skootched around the web, gleaning here and there, listening to snatches of information on the radio, etc. The truth is that you can’t really get away from news unless you live in a hermit hut in the middle of a wilderness – and despite my occasional longing to do just that, I still live in a moderately urban area, talk to people, and I am still privy to Media, whether I like it or not – so I know who’s running for president, and I know about wars and catastrophes and scandals. The key for me was to reduce my intake – dramatically. I still don’t get or read newspapers, I don’t frequent news web sites, I don’t watch news programs, I don’t read news magazines. For a while there, I was happily news-free. I saw a lot less of Paris Hilton, for instance. It was a rather pleasant time.
Well, and then I decided to start blogging. And I found a whole bunch of amazing people out there talking about the News, and politics in particular, in bitter and angry detail, and I liked it so I went looking for more…and next thing you know I’m reading dozens of blogs and my intake of The News has suddenly spiked. And I started to see those Media Gremlins from the days of yore beginning to grin at me again from just beyond my range of vision.
So I decided to take a little internet/news/blogs fast. I didn’t quite mean for it to go on as long as it has, but it was immeasurably beneficial. And here I am, all apple-cheeks and rosy countenance (more or less), just in time to start cheerleading for Beltane.
More to come this week as I begin to organize my thought patterns back into “oh, I should blog about this” mode. Until then, I contemplate the impending season (this is why you gotta love the Pagani – just when you think we’ve just finished one holiday, you turn around and bump into another), and the not so Beltaney weather we’ve been having here in the not-so-wild Midwest lately. Less snow, please Mama. More tulips. Just a request from a humble not-at-all-secret admirer.
Inanna said,
April 12, 2007 at 10:33 pm
Good to see you! (Or at least read you.) I haven’t been around much lately, either – just too much going on in my non-cyber world.
Before I started “Desire” – and concurrently for a while, too – I had another blog, my first blog, in which I wrote about feminism, philosophy, and politics, all of which have been obsessions for my entire adult life. It was a well-read, popular little blog. I stopped writing that blog (and it seems to have disappeared; I keep meaning to have my “tech guy,” my cousin’s husband, help me find it for posterity – I thought nothing ever disappeared on the internet!) … ahem. I stopped writing that blog because I just got too pissed off. I felt like I was in reaction to every cultural-political wave that hit the blogosphere. I commented with great umbrage on every story relevant to feminism. I called out for other feminist philosophical voices and heard mostly an echo. A chunk of my days and most of my writing was driven by anger. And I just had to get off that ride.
I don’t write about politics on “Desire.” I don’t read the politics and feminism blogs anymore. It’s not a great solution. It’s perhaps akin to deciding to only eat oatmeal and applesauce in order to stay thin. (Aw, Hel, I don’t know if I accept that analogy.)
Anyway, I really value your voice and perspective here, so I hope you keep up the blogging.
Blessings.
kay said,
April 13, 2007 at 2:36 am
I’m so very glad your back.
executivepagan said,
April 13, 2007 at 1:43 pm
Welcome back! We kept some of the plants alive for you…
With the exception of Crunchy Con, I intentionally limit my blog-reading to blogs that are primarily non-political in nature, for much the same reason as you.
Jonah said,
April 13, 2007 at 3:28 pm
There’s a great essay in the book Generation Hex edited by Jason Louv in which a young occultist attempts to cast a love spell on the Fox News network. I think it’s called My Love War with Fox News. Fox’s astral form appears to the author as a giant spider which bites him. Kind of reminds me of your “unified blob-like entity” in a way.
Glad you’re back. Missed you.
Pants Wilson said,
April 13, 2007 at 6:24 pm
Pain Raisin will bless you and keep you….
Pain Raisin will make its face to shine upon you….
And give you peace.
Eventually. But you’re not done with the struggle, for now…….
Luv, Pants
Laura said,
April 13, 2007 at 6:36 pm
When my partner and I moved into our house 2 1/2 years ago, we chose not to get cable (which had been free in our apartment of almost 7 years). Our reception is terrible. Pretty much anything we want to see (my guilty pleasure is Lost) we get on DVD.
My life is so much better without tv. I could go on and on about this, but no need. It’s so much better. The News and pop culture,all of it, rarely filters in.
I still get the weekend newspaper, but most of my news comes through blogs. Or, Grist or AlterNet, so I can at least trust the news being presented. Lately, however, I mostly jsut want to read knitting blogs. Or knit.