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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On a live awards show Sunday night, one man made a joke about a female celebrity. The husband of the celebrity was offended and hit the man who made the joke. Or maybe it was staged for entertainment. Who knows? Who cares? Social media is full of discussion — and even arguments — about this idiocy today. This baffles me. Let’s assume for a moment that the event happened as reported. People have been having such idiotic fights ever since there have been humans. Half the bars in the world see such brief dustups regularly. It simply doesn’t matter. The fact that so many people believe they need to talk about this — or even need to have opinions about it — is more evidence of the bizarre media brainwashing that convinces many to care passionately about brain-dead trivia. Your life will be happier and saner if you focus on yourself, your family and your friends, not on whatever scripted (or spontaneous) bilge that the media wants to pipe into your home.

I’m in the middle of migrating this website to new servers this week. This means you might encounter some unexpected behavior until I get all the bugs worked out. Clicking on my links (including this one) might cause your browser to give you the message that it’s a site without a current security certificate. It’s not actually unsafe, but there’s something which isn’t yet set up for the security certificate. I apologize for any such errors you might encounter while the process is going on. If you notice any problems with content which didn’t migrate properly, I would appreciate you letting me know the details at davidmcelroy@mac.com. Thanks for your patience.

I often wonder what animals think when they look at us and consider the society we’ve created. Yes, I know this is fanciful and unrealistic, but what if they could? Would they be astounded at how we treat each other? Would they be disgusted by the ugliness and pettiness which fill so many of our daily interactions? The truth is that I’m feeling pretty disgusted with humanity tonight. I made the mistake of reading some online interactions that I should have avoided — and it sickened me. The people involved appeared to be vile and stupid and arrogant. I wish I could pretend they’re a tiny minority, but I know better. It’s times such as this when I most need to escape much of “civilization” and disconnect from their world. If humans are going to be worthy of “ruling this planet,” we have a lot of growth to do. And I fear that growth is nowhere in sight. So my buddy Thomas, above, and all of his friends would be right to judge us harshly — and to think, “Why do you folks get to be in charge?”

I should have expected this, but I honestly didn’t. The article I wrote last week about disagreements over treatment for autistic children brought me angry emails. You could almost call it “hate mail.” Of the five emails about it so far, two have been to tell me that I’m wrong to even listen to critics of the most popular therapy for autistic children — and the other three tell me I’m wrong for not condemning the treatment as the “obvious” abuse it is. If you read the article, you know I didn’t take a position on the issue, because I simply don’t know enough to have an opinion. But by talking about the issue, I stepped into a heated controversy. The emails from the two sides convinced me of nothing. But they did give me even more empathy for the unfortunate parents who have to figure out for themselves where the truth lies for their children.

Have you ever had what you thought was a new idea — and then discovered that “old you” had the same idea years ago? I had that experience tonight. And it’s been wonderful. I came up with an idea tonight for a very short satirical film that would be a promotion for a fictitious college. The point is to make the college promote — as good things — everything which is actually terrible about most modern colleges. Then I remembered a fake college that I invented back when I was in college. I had created student recruitment brochures and various newsletters back then, so I decided to call my “new” college by the same name I’d invented years ago: Ochita College. As I searched my computer for any old material I might still have about Ochita from the past, I discovered an email I sent to someone in 2009 — outlining essentially the same idea which I came up with tonight. Since I didn’t remember writing that, it felt like magic. So my next film project just might be this one instead. If all goes well, you might soon see “Ochita College: Your Future Starts Here.” This should be fun.

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