Watching a train wreck syndrome
I don’t know what we’d do for entertainment if it wasn’t for the Americans. They have something for every taste. If you can’t find something to grab you on network TV or Netflix, you can become a CNN junkie/ masochist. Or a Fox junkie I suppose but that’s too scary for me to even contemplate.
And don’t think it can’t happen to you. I thought that. Even if you’ve never been the type to tear a Band Aid off slowly or ease your way inch by freezing inch into a body of water, you can become addicted to having your mind numbed on a regular basis by CNN.
Newman is addicted. I’ve figured out that it’s kind of like a work substitute thing with him; from nine to five CNN is never off in the cave; doesn’t matter if he’s home or not. His addiction is so bad that he keeps it on when he leaves so it will be ready for him when he returns. What other explanation could there be? Sometimes I go in and turn it off. I’d do that anyway because wasting power drives me crazy, but sometimes my driving force is also the desire to protect him, help him kick the habit, and sometimes I admit I like the evil feeling it
gives me. Ha ha.
For some bizarre reason my work desk is right under his drug of choice; the big TV on the wall. He sits about five feet away, getting a double fix in front of his computer with one ear on the TV.
So here I am this morning, trying to write, and Hurricane Michael is about to hit landfall in Florida. Natural disasters are not entertaining in the conventional sense of the word, but they are fascinating and compelling and make me feel so good about where we live that, even in the face of a Newfoundland
winter, I can actually say things like, “why would anyone want to live in Florida, or California?”
American news TV begs the question; which is more fascinating; natural disasters or unnatural disasters?
Ever since the reality TV guy announced his candidacy for what was then considered to be the most powerful position in the world, reality became unreal. In the beginning, whenever you thought it couldn’t get any more bizarre or unbelievable, it did, and before you knew it perfectly ordinary
Canadians like Newman were hooked on CNN.
I call it the “watching a train wreck” syndrome; what happens to you so that you can’t look away from something horrible.
Last week the Kavanaugh debacle both repulsed and fascinated us. It oddly evoked memories of the OJ trial. (I knew people who stayed home from work to watch that and I was not one of them.) Maybe that was the beginning of reality TV, but it was normal reality compared to what we have now, if you know what I mean.
I watch about an hour of CNN to Newman’s 10, so of course I enjoy feeling superior about that, but in full disclosure, I admit to you now that Newman has left the room and I have not turned off the TV or changed the channel. I would have but I have a morbid interest in hurricanes because I know it that it will be our turn eventually, Igor notwithstanding.
The awful thing is that there is no end of any of it in sight. One of the announcers just said, “There seems to be an historic storm every month or so.” It’s true. If it’s not hurricanes, its wildfires or earthquakes or tsunamis or volcanoes or landslides. Or tweets. There’s nothing entertaining about climate change, but the consequences are mesmerizing. And depressing.
Sort of like American political news coverage.
Ever since the reality TV guy announced his candidacy for what was then considered to be the most powerful position in the world, reality became unreal. In the beginning, whenever you thought it couldn’t get any more bizarre or unbelievable, it did …