Best way to fight terror? Turn off your TV and get back to real life

By David McElroy · April 18, 2013

There are a lot of people who want you to be scared and obsessed with public safety right now. I’d like to suggest that it’s in your best interest — and the best interest of everyone around you — to turn your television off and quit obsessively following the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing.

If you live in Boston or if you have family there or if you somehow have such a personal tie, I understand that you want to keep up with it more than the rest of us. That’s understandable. It’s a local story for you, and it affects you in a personal way. But for the rest of us — the vast majority — it’s worse than a waste of time. It’s creating exactly what terrorists want. (I’m calling the perpetrator of the bombing a terrorist on the assumption that creating terror was his intent. I’m not implying anything about who it might have been or what the person’s cause might be. Because I don’t know.)

Terrorists want you to be scared. Pure and simple. They want you to be looking over your shoulder and wondering when something bad might happen again. They want you to wonder whether it might be in your city next time. They want you to eventually feel that you’re willing to do anything to convince them to leave you alone.

Politicians want you to be scared. They wouldn’t word it that way, of course, but they like people to be scared because it allows them to seize more power. The increased power and budgets of the federal “security” bureaucrats over the last 12 years or so are perfect examples. Before Sept. 11, 2001, Americans wouldn’t have stood for the privacy invasions that were foisted on us. But scared people go along with such intrusions, because we tell ourselves it will make us safer.

Television networks want you to be scared. They want you to watch what they’re beaming into your world, because the more you watch, the more money they can make. (And ratings are way up this week for cable news.) It’s a simple calculus of entertainment for them. If millions of people wanted to watch one-handed midget bowlers play chess between bowling rounds, they’d be happy to put that on the air. They don’t much care what they broadcast — as long as you’re watching. And they’ve learned that if they can make you believe you’re in danger, you’re going to watch. I’ve written before that news has changed in terrible ways, becoming nothing more than an extension of entertainment. It scares me what it’s become, and it scares me that people pay so much attention to it. I think we’re generally better off without it.

Unless you have a direct stake in what’s going on in Boston, you have no reason to be afraid. What happened shouldn’t affect you. If the rest of the country went about its business without batting an eye — and if television ratings went down when networks filled their time with titillating fluff and speculation — the terrorists would find their tactic didn’t work, politicians would find themselves unable to take advantage of us, and TV execs might have to figure out some other way to fill up their time. (I’ve argued before that we all ought to turn off television, so I’m not convinced they’d find anything better. But that’s a different issue.)

I’ve heard some people say they’re watching the coverage because it’s entertaining. That’s their right, of course. I’ve had others say they watch because it helps them keep an eye out for politicians trampling on our freedoms. Watching it happen and being aware of it has really made a big difference in the last 12 years or so, hasn’t it?

I suggest that you’ll be happier if you concentrate on your own life and quit worrying so much about things you can’t control. I think it’s healthier for us to focus on our families and friends — and on finding ways to accomplish the things that matter to us. You’re obviously free to disregard my suggestion, but I think you’d be happier.

People want you to be afraid. They can’t achieve that if you refuse to be sucked in to the black hole of uncertain media coverage. So turn off your television. Pay attention to real life that’s relevant to you. We’ll all be happier and more secure if we do that.

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We are ruled by the dumbest and most incompetent people among us — and we have a system which allows stupid and irresponsible people to force the costs of their idiocy onto smarter and wiser people. Can we get away with that? Yes, for quite some time. But we eventually reach a point at which the dumbest of the dumb — who are habitual liars and mentally ill fools — lead us to the disasters and destruction that some of us have seen coming for years. We are approaching that point. And yet most of the idiots around us still wave their rhetorical banners of support for the evil people who are leading us to ruin — and all of them point their fingers at someone else, never noticing that their own enthusiastic support of evil is to blame. When things finally fall apart, blame yourself for your blindness to the evil, not whoever happens to be in power when it happens.

I’ve been making some changes to the site lately and there are more changes coming in the days ahead, so don’t be surprised if you some small differences. This is not a wholesale redesign, but rather the addition of some features. Since they’re smarter than I am, I’ve put Oliver and Alex in charge of the technical work, which you can see in this action photo from the control room of our media complex. I recently added a series of landing pages for readers who randomly discover the site from an Internet search. I’ve also changed the YouTube link at the top of the page to go to the new YouTube channel for video essays that reflect things I’ve already published here. (Here’s a little bit about both of the YouTube channels I’m working on.) In addition, I’m trying to move away from using Instagram, so I’m experimenting with photo plug-ins that will eventually allow me to host the pictures — cats, dogs, sunsets, whatever — that I often take. So don’t be surprised to see more changes. Thanks for your patience. Let’s hope Alex and Oliver know what they’re doing.

I have no use for the theocratic and repressive government of Iran. The people who run the country are cruel at best and evil at worst. The Iranian people deserve freedom. But I have no personal quarrel with anybody in Iran. While I’m not thrilled about a future Iranian government having nuclear weapons, I’m just as concerned about nukes in the hands of politicians in Israel, Pakistan, India, China and Russia. I’m not even thrilled with the U.S., Britain and France having them, either, because I don’t trust any politicians to be responsible with such terrible weapons. All I can say with certainty is that American taxpayers have no business attacking Iran, especially since we’re being forced to pay for this attack in order to benefit the politicians of Israel — and nobody else. If Middle Eastern countries want to fight among themselves, that’s none of my business. It’s not the business of the U.S. government, either. I have no quarrel with anybody in Iran — and having the government which claims to represent me launch an unprovoked attack against a sovereign country will only make all Americans less safe in the near future. This attack is poorly conceived and morally unjustified. Remember that when the Iranians launch attacks that we will then condemn as “terrorism.” What the U.S. is doing right now looks like terrorism to me. And let’s not forget that the attack is the latest in a long line of unconstitutional wars by various U.S. presidents — who have no legal power to declare war on their own, according to the U.S. Constitution.

A child having a tantrum understands only one thing: Did I get my way or not? He doesn’t understand the issues involved. He doesn’t understand the reasons that went into a decision. He doesn’t understand any of the things that mature and reasonable adults have to understand in order to live healthy lives. By his reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling to strike down his disastrous tariff scheme, Donald Trump shows himself to be — once more — a screaming child having a tantrum. Outside the world of mob bosses who expect to get their way every time, normal adults don’t act this way, but Trump isn’t normal. He’s an angry and vengeful man who has narcissistic personality disorder. And we are in danger as a result. Trump doesn’t understand the legal issues involved in this ruling. He doesn’t understand economics. He doesn’t understand rule of law. He doesn’t understand that he can ever be wrong. All he understands is that he didn’t get his way. And he is now a narcissistic and raging little boy who also happens to hold life-and-death power over most humans on this planet. He’s dangerous — and the system which gives him that power is even more dangerous.

Is it an attempt to blur the gender line between men and women? Or is it some weird tribute to the traditional Scottish kilt? It’s hard to say, but fashion designers keep pushing for men to wear skirts in the last few years. Both men and women in modern fashion seem oddly androgynous, as though it would be offensive for a man to look manly or for a woman to look feminine. A CNN article about the latest fashions from Paris caught my attention Monday and left me wondering about the ugly clothes the designers are hawking. If a man wants to wear a skirt — or a kilt — that’s OK with me, but I’ll stick with a traditional dark suit with a white shirt and tie. (Well, when I’m not wearing t-shirts and sweats, of course.) I always wonder who actually buys the outlandish garb from fashion designers anyway. I would be humiliated to be seen in any of this stuff, but I obviously have no sense of high fashion.

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