David McElroy

When someone we care about hurts, it’s natural to feel the pain ourselves. That empathy is one of the most important parts of being a loving person. In our action-oriented Western culture, it’s hard to remember that understanding is frequently more important than solving someone’s problem.

This issue has been on my mind this morning because of something I found out late last night. Someone I care about greatly is going through a tremendous amount of pain, and I’m not in a position to do anything about it. What do you do when you can’t make someone’s pain stop and you can’t fix everything that’s wrong?

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For those of us who have been thinking about the idea of autonomous cities for many years, the idea of a good source for realistic information is like a dream come true. I’ve been researching various ideas for years and found precious little. The best source of info I’ve ever seen has just gone online this week, so I highly recommend the new Free Cities Institute website.

I’ve been talking to you about free cities for months. (I’ve covered the idea probably half a dozen times, so there are other stories.) Although I’ve been pursuing the idea of independent entities for more than a decade, it was only recently when I met Michael Strong and was acquainted with the idea of autonomous free cities within existing countries. It’s not the full independence that I see as the eventual future, but it’s a huge leap forward over anything realistic today. I’m a believer in the idea, and I hope to be involved with one of these free cities very soon.

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Most people with at least half a brain realize that “reality TV” is anything but reality. It’s scripted and edited to create the drama and tension producers want — to attract and entertain viewers. But how many people understand the same is true of news?

Newsweek’s Howard Kurtz has a great article this week about how Fox News boss Roger Ailes is making changes at his news channel to tweak its positioning. Although the moves are interesting all by themselves, I was struck by some of the details that emerge in Kurtz’ reporting, because it’s very obvious that the purpose of the producers is to create drama, not to enlighten people.

Because Fox let Kurtz have behind-the-scenes access to meetings between producers preparing for last week’s Fox GOP presidential debate, it’s clear that the network doesn’t mind you knowing this. The unreality of news has become so accepted that it doesn’t cross anybody’s mind to be ashamed of manipulating what should be serious discussion into being a televised melodrama about personalities instead. They might as well be plotting to create chaos between cast members of “Big Brother.” Kurtz reports:

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