20160314 (pretense)

Penultimate suicide--avoidance of the senses

“I don’t watch, listen to, or read

The news nowadays. What isn’t

Frightening is crap,” someone

Told me recently. I sympathize

But disagree with the tactic. I

Know why people feel this way.

Constant exposure to the terrible

Events taking place around us 

Erodes whatever sense of safety

Our parents worked to engender

In us to enable us to function as

Competent adults in a competitive

Society. Maintaining that composure

Can be difficult considering that

“News” is manipulated to achieve

Varied ends. Mark Twain wrote,

“If you don’t read the papers you

Are uninformed. If you do read

The papers you are misinformed.”

A good principle in judging the

Accuracy and honesty of what 

You hear or what you see, has been

And still is today is not to rely on

Single sources. The internet provides

A bewildering variety of sources

Among which you will with 

Experience and good judgment

Find those you can trust. Keep in

Mind the aphorism so old its source

Is unknown, “Believe only half

Of what you see and none of what 

You read.” Media are businesses

And as such are subject to market

Needs and desires. Only the naive

Regard them as natural truth-tellers.

They have all withheld stories 

When it is in their interests and

Passed along as news what is 

Advertising--the public be damned.

Second, they are powerful voices

Who can promote good or evil 

Depending on the whims of their

Owners or who’s paying the piper.

The mechanisms of propaganda,

Disinformation have multiplied and 

Become more devious today but 

The need for the truth still falls

Equally on each of us. We can’t

Stick our heads in the sand to

Pretend the obvious is not really 

There. It’s one thing to be conscious

And confused, quite another to 

Prefer ignorance to avoid guilt.

The ancients who fled the cities

To escape corruption, temptations,

And distractions, knew well what 

They were leaving to seek purity

In the desert loneliness. Similarly

We cannot continue to reap the 

Benefits of our dysfunctional 

Society, then pretend we are 

Not participants in it. Plugging

Our ears so as not to hear the

Cries of the suffering, or pulling

Shades to blind us to injustice 

Removes neither the injustice

Nor the suffering—nor our

Responsibility to act to end 

Them.

c. J.S.Manista, 2016