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.

Share on Social Networks

Have you ever wondered how the social media world works for so-called “influencers”? I find it comical, so I thought I’d share with you. I frequently get offers such as what I’m about to describe. And if I’m getting such offers — as a relative nobody in the online world — you can only imagine what people with huge audiences are offered. It starts with an email appealing to my ego: “We came across your online presence and we LOVE your style. We’d love to have you as one of our Brand Ambassadors. To celebrate our new [Brand Name] collection, we want to give you a FREE Watch so you can post a picture of you wearing it and drive more exposure to our brand.” Did you hear that? They love me. They want me to be seen wearing their cheap $59 watch so other people will think, “If this amazing influencer wears that, surely I should buy one.” They even offer me commissions on the watches sold from people clicking from my site. So the next time you see some alleged “influencer” touting something online or on social media, remember that this is what it’s probably all about. It’s laughable.

Modern culture is going insane. The latest evidence comes from the effort to redefine children’s author Dr. Seuss as a racist whose books should be banned. Why? Because a few images in those books don’t meet modern political standards. The drawing you see here is one of those “dangerously racist images,” and it comes from the Dr. Seuss classic, “And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street.” The book catalogs all the wild diversity seen by a child on one street, including the offending drawing of a Chinese boy. What’s racist about it? Apparently, it was racist to show the boy eating rice, wearing a funny hat, using chopsticks and (worst of all) having eyes represented by a slit. (The bearded man near him has dots for eyes, but that’s apparently OK.) In other words, the stereotypes are considered racist today. (Oddly, the culture warriors who fret over such things are never concerned if a white southerner is depicted as ignorant trash living in a trailer. Some stereotypes are great, especially if the left hates those people anyway.) Theodore Geisel — the name of the real-life Dr. Seuss — was a product of his time and nobody at that time would have seen any of this as racist. Using stereotypes and exaggerations is how artists depict differences in simple ways. You can argue that it’s better to achieve the end result in a different way, but it’s insane to pretend that everybody from the past should have his work erased because it doesn’t match the preferences of modern leftists. Unfortunately, the company that publishes Dr. Seuss books has caved to the insane people — and six of his popular works will no longer be published. The world has simply gone insane.

Tyler Barnes will never be a basketball star. He probably peaked as a star high school player in Louisville, Ky. But for the last four years, he’s been a walk-on player for the University of Alabama. He’s a chemical engineering major with lots of academic honors who rides the bench because he loves being part of a team. He sometimes gets into games with a minute or two to go, but only if Alabama has a big lead. This Saturday, it was senior day for Alabama basketball, so it was his last chance to play in Coleman Coliseum. Alabama Coach Nate Oats says that one of the team starter’s came to him an hour before the game started — and fellow senior Alex Reese asked Oats if Barnes could start in his place for this one game. Even though the game was huge for Alabama, which is ranked No. 6 in the country and trying to wrap up an SEC title, Oats agreed. Barnes started and played the first three minutes, grabbing what was only the fourth rebound of his career and missing his only shot. Barnes has a great future as an engineer, but you’ll never again hear from him as a basketball player. For three shining minutes Saturday, though, he was a starter for a top-10 college basketball team — and his parents were in the stands from Kentucky to see it. There’s a lot of ugliness in college basketball right now, but this story makes me happy.

It was five years ago tonight when Lucy first rode in the car with me. She was on her way to her “forever home” with me that night, but she didn’t know it, so she was terrified. It was a much happier and braver girl who took a ride in the car tonight so we could go through a drive-through window and order a hamburger for her — to celebrate five years with me. She had a great time. If she could remember five years ago tonight, she would be proud of how far she’s come, too. If you’d like to know more about Lucy’s journey from scared dog to brave queen of the household, here’s something I wrote after her first year with me. I’m hoping this girl will have many more happy years with me.

I’ve never been attracted to skinny women. There’s nothing wrong with someone who’s naturally thin, but it’s never been my preference. What has shocked me, though, is the judgment I’ve heard from women all through my life — about themselves and others — about who’s “fat.” I concluded long ago that most women in our culture have been brainwashed to believe that skinny is attractive — and that anything other than skinny is ugly. I first assumed that I was the oddball — for preferring women with bigger and heavier bodies — but I’m coming to the conclusion that most men naturally feel this way to one extent or another. I just ran across new research by a couple of Northwestern University psychology professors that shows that women seriously overestimate how much a straight man will be attracted to a skinny woman. In a perfect world, we would all be at a healthy weight, but when it comes to attractiveness, too heavy is more attractive than skinny. At least to me — and to a lot of men, too.

Related Posts