Life
Bad News Spawns Reality-Denial
It’s getting progressively harder to listen to the morning news. It raises blood pressure and closes minds. Much of what is on the news today can convince you that the country, in fact, the entire world, is in decline. Maybe the end is near.
With each piece of bad news, we ask ourselves, “why is this stuff happening?” For many of us, our response to bad news is to ignore it or rationalize it away. I call both responses reality-denial.
Questions baked into current bad news
A sampling of the news of July 2021 provides dozens of examples of the type of bad news that surrounds us.
What is the “Delta variant,” and is the pandemic about to hit the restart button?
What is a “heat dome,” and how is it possible for temperatures to rise to 110 degrees in Canada?
How long will it take until all victims of the Surfside, Florida condo collapse are found? Is it possible some will never be found?
Why are deaths rising rapidly from drug overdoses across the country?
Why has crime exploded in major cities?
Why are Russians hacking American computers for ransom?
Why did Japan just ban all spectators from the Olympic games?
Why can’t Congress set aside it's partisan fighting for a few days and pass a compromise infrastructure bill?
Why hasn’t Trump been indicted yet? Will he be “reinstated” as president in August? And how can any sane person believe that will happen?
Is a suspected sex trafficker really serving in Congress?
Why hasn’t Joe Biden solved the border crisis as he said he would?
Why are Democrats pushing Critical Race Theory to be taught in schools?
Why is homelessness up in major cities?
Why does part of the city appear to be enjoying good times while other people remain in economic crisis?
These are just a few questions raised by reading the paper for a week. We are…
