The news is all bad. Grown men see they are playing prisoners dilemma with no policemen and yet will not make peace (Israel / Palestine / Iran; Afghanistan and Pakistan). Democratic countries have admitted that actually, totalitarian control is where its at, if you're going to be a successful nation-state. Secret courts, secret prisons, indefinite detention. Australia is supplying equipment to prevent the escape of people who want to claim asylum. Sri Lanka may not be North Korea, but not being a Tamil trusting my life to whatever boat I can find, I'm hesitant to judge.
Not just bad things are happening, but that the reporting apparat has an interest in palliative reassurance: we can do nothing about climate change, what poverty is like, the absence of peace, the strangers in our midst and monsters.
(To avoid being part of that bad news apathy, I should quickly plug spending money on media that are great: subscribe to your favorite news organization (crikey.com, theage.com, andrew sullivan, the atlantic - the economist, whoever)- they really need it; go see great films that fit your taste; donate to wikipedia.)
The other thing to do is write to your MP and ministers and parliamentarians. I'm going to try that, and I'll put the first drafts on the blog.
These are attempts to stave off depression. I'm really in trouble with a lack of motivation, lack of excitement, lack of productivity at work. When you see the world as a calamity (the slaughter-bench of history - is that Agamben or Benjamin or someone?) piling up your day's labour, throwing its corpse into the pit that is working for the man to keep it going is not very motivating.
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This is your chance to be heard, really heard! Finally the world will take you seriously. So do try to post something worthwhile.