Have You Heard The News?

[Found Goat]

How important is the news to those of us who inhabit ivory towers in far-away never-never lands? On occasion we may descend from the clouds, curious we are as to what the earth-dwellers have been up to for the past week, month, or even year, only to return to our otherworldly affairs, often none the wiser.

Who has time to glaze over the dailies?, questions the lotus-eater. How does what goes on in Timbuktu affect me one bit?, the navel-gazer wants to know. Yet I wonder: Are these spiritually valid queries or perhaps symptomatic of excessive self-absorption?

Personally, I think it's important to stay up-to-date on current events, even though as one innately given to transmundane reflections and reverie I often find this a required effort to do.

Meanwhile, there are those who spend every waking hour of their spare time wrapped up in mediagenic tidings, to the likely detriment of their imaginative selves and inner reality. It's as if these ones would find life utterly meaningless were it not for conflicts and catastrophes in the world in which to allow for them to comment upon. Whereas, others are so disinterested in what goes on outside of their personal lives that they probably can't even name their own national president or prime minister.

Granted, hectic schedules often leave little time for perusing the rags. For many I suppose, soundbites and news tickers are all that they can manage. It has been dubbed the Information Age, but how many are actually well-informed?

Interestingly, daily bulletins date back as far as the ancient Roman period. At one time handwritten and woodcut-illustrated news-sheets were sold in public markets and at fairs. Centuries later would see to the invention of the printing press and the Linotype machine. In the 20th century there were newsreels. People at least at one time had a craving for the latest scoops, scandals, and filler.

Nowadays, it is said, public interest in reportage is at an all-time low, even among the earth-dwellers. For some, the news is too depressing for them to take an interest in. Others, especially of the apathetic younger generations, are all but illiterate and do not care what happens outside of their own interpersonal bubbles.

So, who's paying attention to what is going on in the global theater? Magazine racks and newsstands are slowly going the way of the daisy wheel and the dust jacket. Newsboys are practically a thing of the past. Extra! Extra! once exclaimed the boy on the street, hawking the latest paper edition. Heck, are sensational tabloids even around anymore?

I suspect some among those who continue to subscribe to printed gazettes do so almost out of a sense of tradition more than anything else. Here I'm reminded of a lady whose hobby was keeping scrapbooks of newspaper clippings, although she once admitted to me that she never read any of them once they were entered. When I asked why she continued on with this interest of hers, she explained how she enjoyed working with scissors and paste; that putting stationary to use filled her with a sense of satisfaction and helped to pass the time. Next to her, my ivory tower didn't seem so bad.

For me, the supersensible and the aesthetic is where it's at. And yet, there's also a part of me that understands the importance of staying somewhat grounded to the earthplane, even if metaphysically I realize the world stage to be in large part illusory. Hence, why from time-to-time I give the anchorman, columnist, and radiobroadcaster some of my undivided attention.

As for whether there will be any need for an AP wire in the afterlife is anyone's guess, or will the hereafter be just as newsy as this plane of existence is? If on the other side there is nothing but blissful problemlessness, what could there possibly be to report?

[ameliorate]

Wow - what an impressive, well-written and comprehensive overview of the topic! Well done!

Of course it is one thing to want to hear the news but what also needs to be borne in mind is the SOURCE of that news, i.e. what bias/agenda are we being subjected to?

I like to get my news from many different sources, e.g. various TV channels, the radio and occasionally I dip into this good non-profit website

www.therealnews.com

whose angle is telling the stories that matter to movements fighting back against capitalism, white supremacy, and imperialism. Yes I care about humanity!

I have little interest/attention span for anything to do with war i.e. I tend to tune out since it's all a madness....just legalised murder.

...OH MY GOODNESS....And yes of course ....speak to me baby LOL... For you are talking to a former newsagent... Who's job it was to deliver the news to the "en masse" ... And I'll be blowed if I EVER read a newspaper myself.... From afar now...and I'm talking the 5d realms, I KNOW the news, what it means... What it's GOING to mean... And am quite happy to have the knowledge with one foot here, and the other foot there...

[dream jo]

i onlyy tryy 2 lson 2 lcalll news
i no in ld in marhh april i se my dl ogg yo gt ptsd