The joy of fear
There must be something good about fear. It’s really making a comeback on TV these days. National Geo and Discovery-type channels would run out of shows if there weren’t tornado, volcano, tidal-wave, planet-busting comet, out-of-control virus, earthquake, or sundry natural disaster topics. They need the Death, Doom, and Destruction channel.
Something about us loves fear or it wouldn’t sell like hotcakes. L. Ron Hubbard, my onetime Scientology guru, called mass media “Merchants of Chaos”. And that was back in the day of mere newspapers.
I like to think that if something exists, it’s good, since God is a lot smarter than me. But dang if I can figure out a reason for all this fear, other than it makes you buy stuff. Joy just makes you sit there and feel happy, so we want to make sure there isn’t too much of it on television. Contentment is the advertisers nightmare.
Ignore fear when it comes from media. It’s just a sales ploy.
Peace and joy,
LWIII
Living near the Gulf Coast, I remember seeing Dan Rather in my hometown doing a live broadcast of an uneventful hurricane (long before Katrina) outside he staggered in the wind and rain. We (locals) laughed and laughed because a) he was outside, which was stupid, and b) it was not even close to being as bad a storm as he dramatically reported.
So, I agree. Be joyous and read. Might as well, because most of what you see on television news is fiction.
I bet locals laugh a lot at guys like that. TV news is mostly the theatre of the wallet. Chaos and misery…and threat…sells, and the only raison d’etre of TV news is to push product. Except maybe for PBS-type stuff, and it still is trying to gain viewers.
Thanks for sharing, Darrelyn. Reading rocks!