If this were a Victorian essay I would have entitled it, ‘On Ephemerality’, or even, if I were bold, ‘Of Ephemerality’. Though ephemerality is not the only problem with news. There are three problems. But let me start with ephemerality.
If something is ephemeral it is only — and literally in the original Greek word — of a day. Wake up, enjoy something, sleep and do not remember. Where the news is concerned we are happy Hamlets: “To die, to sleep, to sleep, perchance to dream — ah, there’s the rub”: the rub being the rubber which erases the pencil marks of the previous day. (COVID-19? No, never heard of it. Dustbin of history, mate: green bin if it can be recycled.)
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C. Northcote Parkinson.
‘Work expands so as to fill the time allotted to it’.
Agree completely and in the case of 24-hour news, there is only so much actual “news” to broadcast so they repeat it ad nauseum and then when they finish, they resort to gossip, which, to me, explains the cult of “celebrity”.
A fine work, which opened my eyes to sloth and waste in my 20’s. I have a copy and encourage my kids to read the essays.
I must confess, on reading this article, my ephemerality was clearly on turbo-charge. I forgot the lot on reading the last word!
I definitely paid attention during your comment, but the exclamation mark wiped my memory clean.
3 problems summarised:
1-Most of the news is propaganda.
2-The rest is fake.
3-There are 6 major news orgs in the world controlled by a handful of corporate interests
Anyone who gets their worldviews from the idiot box or the fake news platform is clinically brain dead. That statement has been factchecked and approved.
It’s funny how seldom any news of the irrelevance of CO2 on climate change is ever mentioned. I presume that the “fact checkers” exclude it. And that includes the Telegraph, which is otherwise critical of the practicality of Net Zero.
Can we just take a moment and behold what these deranged ‘Just Sod Off’ lunatics have now gone and done. They really do hate their home country and heritage don’t they? This time Stonehenge gets it;
https://x.com/DaveAtherton20/status/1803397192213819618
Blimey, looks like a 12yr old transgender Harry Potter was one of the culprits;
https://x.com/AvonandsomerRob/status/1803453894955086293
Deranged misanthropes. Well done that woman tackling them, watch the eyes though!
Not really selling the whole ‘Oxford education’ thing either, I don’t think. All that money spent and you come out resembling one of these dweeby leftard cultists. Imagine being such a sad sack that you’d do this sort of thing for a hobby whilst thinking yourself virtuous. These numbskulls are from Planet Moron.
Yet, that is exactly what they are doing, and ‘saving the world’ at the same. If I believed in this nonsense I would be trying to save me, not all the selfish non-believer b’stards who wont join in with my madness. That’s how you know its madness. If it was real, we’d be heading for the hills with a 12 bore and 1000 tins of beans…
And in stages 3 & 4, digital video cameras became available, at first using tape, then memory cards, along with enhanced easy to use editing applications, and almost instant broadcasting. No need to be careful about how much film to use (which was junk straight away) and wait a few hours to process & edit it. The old saying “a picture’s worth a thousand words” has had a lot to do with the format of TV news.
As Orwell said (although better expressed) journalism is what someone does not want printed the rest is propaganda
The epheremal works in the realm of the aesthetic because there is inherent beuty in evanescence. The writings of Proust, Maupaggant, Kasherine Mansfield. Obiously it doesn’t work in the realm of examining complex political and international affairs from a distance. I would advise anyone from avoiding an opinion on a country that you haven’t spent some time in because I can say in every case the impression garnered by the media is way off the way the place really feels. Northern Ireland is a good example for anyone who has lived there or spent time there. It is perhaps the most beautiful place in western Europe and yet it is Europe’s best kept secret precisely because of its portrayal as a desolate and feral place where Paddies kill Paddies all day long.
The problem from stage 3 onwards is really the replacement of information by infotainment: TV news (and anything newer than that) is really an information-based performance. But escaping from it is very easy: Just stop watching it, whatever it is. Wait for important stuff to find you instead of trying to seek it out in an ocean of tosh.
Don’t watch screens. Look at it from a position of authenticity. If you are watching somthing then you a step away from reality. You should be happy that you have that luxury and aren’t under threat. There is so much beauty in just random human encounters or walking down the street. Give up the screens and walk down the street and smile at people or visit somewhere new and let it enter your heart like when you were a small child. It is this that will defeat this evil. That which has no monetary value just beauty.
Spot on. Threw out the TV on 2nd day of lockdown in March 2020.
This article by James Alexander is well written and explains to me why I felt liberated when I did so.
Personally, I find the Daily Sceptic from its inception and latterly, Conservative Woman, two very good sources of articles that permit a more rounded view of the news and what is happening in the world.
When things go down most just weep or complain and then a few try to help the many. The challenge that we are facing will require complete morale and application of abilities. I’m confident because I have lived in many places but there is a native genius of the Brits which has been kept supressed, the Scousers for example. Give me a legion of Scousers and I would conquer the bloody world. And then the Geordies etc
I know about junkies from south wales. They didm’t start out as junkies it was the hopelessness. If a sincere governemnt took charge it would fight hopelessness. That is what I would do. You won’t hear that from any of them. There are so many parts of our country that have been robbed and deprived for fifty years. What kind of a nationalist would allow that to happen. The English people are a fine people and they get treated like this.
Simple solution. Remove all electricity so we return to the 19th century. That will kill all electronic media. There is a sci-fi story in which this happens…The Waveries by Frederic Brown, first published 1945
The stories I hate to read about are those that begin, “(insert name) is expected to announce in a speech tomorrow”, because all politicians release their major speeches in advance in the hope of getting two days’ news stories.