Several attempts at writing this entry and all of them upset and preaching. Pinter’s got this covered beautifully: Don’t look. The world’s about to break.
It’s difficult not to. It feels wrong to look at the news the world over and to throw your hands up and say, ‘No more – I don’t want to see’. It’s a luxury to be able to do that. Facebook allows you to willingly gorge on the minutae of people’s lives – and why shouldn’t it? That’s what it’s for. It’s not a news resource – and Twitter, which once was also fluff, has become a swirling pit of world news and political rage and sadness and vitriol and arguing. You can abandon all this news if you want, but it’s difficult to turn the internet off or look away. Gaza, Israel, Syria, Sudan, the UK government, human rights, animal rights. On and on and on and down to the tiny petty things – spilled wine, children outgrowing their clothes too fast. It’s deafening and tiring and the levels of outrage so imbalanced.
It is too easy to get self-righteous here and just add to the noise. So let’s just say, if you’re lucky and have a job and a roof over your head and a bit of cash, maybe pick a charity and give some money or donate some time. There’s a lot of shit going on out there, from Gaza down. Pick a cause and instead of flailing pointlessly and clicking ‘like’ on angry opinions, do something. Money might seem impersonal to you – an easy way to appease your middle-class guilt – but it’s not going to feel impersonal to the person in the warzone who gets medical aid because of it.
Just, instead of arguing about why you think animal rights come second to human rights, or why drug addicts brought it on themselves but you pity their kids, pick the cause you DO believe in and do a small thing towards making the world slightly better in that area. If, say, you don’t support the RSPCA, fine – do something for Amnesty International or the Red Cross or Medecin Sans Frontieres instead. Something positive. See? Please. Thank you.
Bookworms and Coffee Monsters 