News Avoidance
I’d
chosen to have similar holidays
from
the news before,
but
since whenever it was
that
New Zealand
prime
minister announced
that
he was dishonouring
a
campaign promise
by
playing Robin Hood in reverse
and
giving rich people huge tax cuts
whilst
raising the tax take
from
poor people like me
I
haven’t listened to the radio news
or
watched the news on TV –
not
even the animated isobar map,
which
I do so enjoy – at all,
and
my life is more liveable for it.
I’m
too old to appreciate
feeling
outraged and futile.
I’m
still exposed, though,
to
far too much news
on
facebook, anyway.
The News And One
Of My Shortcomings
I try to avoid the news
as much as I possibly can.
The amount of smug, stupid,
self-righteous,
incomprehensible, and pointless
cruelty
that exists in the world
– New Zealand
is more than I can bear
finding myself exposed to.
I suppose that I should front
up
and go down in flames
fighting the good fight,
but I don’t have it in me any
more,
pessimistic old wuss that I am.
All the News That …
When I sold newspaper
advertising
to various local retailers
my eyes automatically scanned
the bottom of each page
to see who was buying
what size ad,
and the so-called news at the
top –
what we advertising jerks and
creeps
called “editorial” –
was just a blur.
I don’t read newspapers anymore
–
haven’t for years –
but I reckon that
I still know more
about serious shit that goes
down
than most of the people
who do read them.
Horoscope, anyone?
How about some celebrity
gossip?
Letters to the editor from the
rationally deprived?
No
Consolation
I don’t know why I ever watch
Aljazeera,
even with the TV on Mute and
music playing.
After all, I see no need
to have my nose rubbed into
how unimaginably cruel
insecure egotists with power
can be.
I could find consolation
in knowing that what they do
will in the not all that
distant future
bring a shitstorm down on our
species –
if I didn’t have daughters.
What Works
Although I don’t watch
the TV news anymore,
because I dislike being pissed
off,
whilst watching a harmless
rugby match
on Prime one Saturday arvo
I saw a promo for Prime News
delivered by a gorgeous
newsreader
with blond hair and pale eyes
and a kinda flirty way
of saying what seemed
to be serious stuff,
although I had, of course,
touched the ‘Mute’ key
as soon as I saw that it was
the news.
I wondered if she’d got her job
due to her
journalistic and communication
skills
both being superior to those
of all the other applicants.
Almost Lapidary Geology
The image
was of some
young Middle-Eastern fellow
in camouflage drag
crouching behind some drab,
greyish-brown desert rocks
(or were they brownish-grey?)
aiming an assault rifle
across a drab, brownish-grey
desert landscape
(or was it greyish-brown?),
and my eyes focused
on the configuration and
faceting
of one of the rocks,
which struck me as interesting.
Systemic Globalised Acne
I wonder at how
the history of my species
has during my lifetime
careened so far out of control
that the whole shebang has
become
like a giant whitehead zit
just about to pop.
Perspective
It’s so obvious,
and yet so inevitable –
the bad guys are gonna keep
winning,
just as they’ve always done,
until the whole global system
collapses
with horrifying destruction and
casualties.
Yet another civilisation will
end –
this time ours.
New bad guys, of course,
will take over,
because those embodying the cuvée
of ego and ambition and
aggression
and psychopathy and testosterone
always triumph.
And the flowers bloom,
and the birds sing,
and the insects go about their
business
outside my open door.
Progeny
and the Long Term
I wonder whether it’s all gonna
turn into hellshit
during my daughters’ lifetimes,
and I comfort myself that my
not having grandchildren
means that my progeny may avoid
the worst,
because the worst, from a human
perspective,
seems likely to arrive in the
not-all-that-distant future.
The Future
It says something
that the three-day forecast
and the first three days
of the six-day forecast
on the NZ Met Service’s website
are usually different.
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