Video from AskDrBrown
Dr. Brown is challenging you to do without the news, without politics.
The problem isn’t merely that news is inaccurate but that most news (and politics) is largely irrelevant to our lives as Christians. Last week’s news cycle will probably not have a significant effect on how we live. If we’re being honest with ourselves, most of us would admit that what is sold as news; the Internet, or cable news programs, is rarely newsworthy at all.
In the October 1991 issue of First Things, C. John Sommerville wrote “Why the News Makes Us Dumb”:
"What happens when you sell information on a daily basis? You have to make each day’s report seem important, and you do this primarily by reducing the importance of its context. What you are selling is change, and if readers were aware of the bigger story, that would tend to diminish today’s contribution. The industry has to convince its consumers of the significance of today’s News, and it has to make them want to come back tomorrow for more News—more change. The implication will then be that today’s report can now be forgotten. So News involves a radical devaluation of the past, and short-circuits any kind of debate.
The product of the news business is change, not wisdom. Wisdom has to do with seeing things in their largest context, whereas news is structured in a way that destroys the larger context. You have to do certain things to information if you want to sell it on a daily basis. You have to make each day’s report seem important. And you do that by reducing the importance of its context."
Comments