Two New Year’s resolutions
By
NO more New Year’s Eve madness. Like many Filipinos, I used to detonate firecrackers on New Year’s Eve tolengthen my life, attract good luck, and dispel evil spirits.The noisier, the better. But now I realized this is all part of the madness afflicting many of us on New Year’s Eve. Isn’t it madness to spend hard-earned money for firecrackers that give us nothing but noise, smoke, and ashes?
On New Year’s Eve, many of us act sheep-like, governed by the herd instinct. Feng shui experts, astrologers, self-proclaimed seers, and bogus prophets lure us into a world where everything is possible, where we can be anyone we want to be, as long as we wear red clothes, put round fruits on the table, put coins in our pocket, and buy lucky charms.
The long history of civilization is marked by our conscious efforts at confining, and later, curing, madness. But, in our frenzied attempt to remove mad people from our midst, what we succeed in doing is actually to hide madness. When it comes out of its hiding place, madness assumes frightening and elaborate forms, and often cloaked in rationality and logic—like what we do on New Year’s Eve.
No more late night news.
For many years, watching-late night news had become a craving, almost an addiction difficult for me to overcome. But I resolved to give it up this year.
First, I realized that it’s a waste of time looking and listening to well-dressed newscasters who pretend they’re not reading from the idiot board or teleprompter. With exaggerated vocal affectations they broadcast distressing events often accompanied by gory CCTV images that make sleeping difficult at night.
Second, TV news has become a powerful instrument employed by entertainment and marketing firms to manipulate us. Originally, broadcasting news was part of the public service requirements of TV stations. But when TV owners discovered that this attracted viewers, advertisers, and money, they concentrated on generating more viewers rather than on informing the public. That is why TV news is suffused with saucy gossip about movie and television personalities, politicians, and the filthy rich. Profitability has replaced the values of accuracy, truthfulness, and clarity in newsreporting.
Third, the coverage of events is ridiculously myopic and one-sided. Notice how reporters present important questions on morals, religion, and other human concerns. Pressed by time, they seldom search for real answers. They just interview key people in government and industry, or alleged experts on certain issues. What they achieve is not in-depth reporting but a collage of conflicting views that are often shallow and unrelated.
Finally, TV news conditions us to worry about problems that are too big for us to solve. And it makes us angry at our inability to do anything. Perhaps this is the reason there is very little creative and beneficial work going on around us. We waste our energy working up all sorts of angst and anxiety over situations that are beyond our control, while neglecting or aggravating those problems that are within our power to solve.