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posted by catherine / August 13, 2004 /
4 comments /
you know what i realized this past week on vacation at the beach? that i am a much happier person without knowing anything that's going on in the world. i think that must explain why i was so content at uva. i lived in a bubble. voting for gore by absentee ballot was the most informed thing i had ever done in my life. i read the washington post online, and my friends' online journals (livejournals, that is, i had never heard of blogs back then) but that was it. i never read political blogs, or watched cable news, or even the evening news.
it was even better in italy. i had a vague idea of what the whole sniper thing was about, and i was worried for tommy and my family and friends, but not freaked out. when we went to war in march, i barely even knew the [non]reasons for going, and the entire ordeal seemed like a stupid game to me that would, for all its stupidity, probably be over in a matter of months. to be honest, i didn't even care that much that bush was president. i'm a lifelong democrat, but bush seemed harmless, and i figured the US would be okay in a general sort of sense.
then it all went to hell. i got back from italy and decided one day, on a whim, to become more politically informed, because it was apparent that i knew nothing about everything and it was shameful. i read the nyt and the post cover to online cover every day, and devoured all other sorts of online news sites. i watched cnn and msnbc and different news shows constantly, and started to feel proud of what i was learning and that i knew more about politics than the average american.
and then, i discovered political blogs. some say worst day ever. at first it was just a passing fancy - i would read sullivan, yglesias, daily kos, instapundit very briefly and not regularly at all. but then i started reading the bigger sites more and more, and found through their blogrolls these sites that were so vitriolic and terrible and petty about politics, but so much so that they were mesmerizing and i couldn't keep away from them. at first it was fun to read the angry debates and even participate in them from time to time, but in the past few months the hate and name-calling involved in politics has risen to such a level that it was actually physically stressing me out to read them. i wanted to not read them, but i was so often bored at work that i kept doing it anyway.
so i was happy to be away from a computer for a week. at the beach, i guess i made a sort of conscious decision to not really pay attention to the news. my parents bought the nyt every day, but i would only read the arts and entertainment sections. when the tv was on, it was mostly switched to cnn and other cable news, but i found that unless it was basic news coming from an anchorperson's mouth, straight from the teleprompter, i couldn't bear to listen. like, when a pundit got on a show and started ranting and raving about something, i physically couldn't stand to watch and would beg for the channel to be changed or would go outside to read. i guess also in the past year i've learned what a horrible sham most of our mainstream press is, and it sickens me to watch them.
so i came back from the beach much more ignorant (i had no idea what the whole kerry cambodia thing was about, and i still don't really, and i don't really care to) but much happier. i caught up with the blogs written by people i know in real life, and read some yglesias and kevin drum and daniel drezner, who are basically the only political bloggers i can stand anymore, and a few other sites on the blogroll and that was it. i think i'll try to strike a balance between being reasonably informed yet not so consumed by politics and debate that it stresses me out.
anyway, i guess i have no idea what the point of this post was, except i am bored at work and wanted to say that i think i'll be much happier if i let the daily show and the onion be the source of all my world news knowledge.
