I’m reclaiming my own time by going on a “fast” from all forms of media except educational and informational content that improves my understanding and appreciation of the world.
None of the news channels, podcasts, or other sources on either side of the political aisle are about communication. They are built on rhetoric. This is language that selectively manipulates facts and fiction to achieve a desired emotion or behavioral change in another. They know, like their advertisers, that “truth” is “perception”, and has nothing to do with what actually happens in the real world.
When I did my meditation retreats, I gave up my phone and all other media for the 10 or 20 days to cleanse my mind of the firehose of rhetoric poisoning it. This rhetorical “fast” is now a regular part of my life.
It’s hard at first, but you can find other things to do than listen to it and think about it all night as you toss and turn, stupidly worrying about events on the other side of the world. But it can save your mental life and serenity if you master it.
Earlier today there was a thread about Rick Monday saving the American flag. One of the comments made in the responses was that ‘we were better then’. In so many ways we were, and IMHO most of the ways we weren’t have been addressed multiple times over since then.
Fast forward to now, when almost the entire Democrat party can be accurately characterized as hateful against the American society that celebrated Rick Monday’s patriotic actions on that day, on an American baseball field, during our Bicentennial year in 1976.
It’s beyond sad.