Good News / Bad News

Just the other day I was talking with some new friends. They mentioned that they no longer read the news because it is all bad news. Their perspective is hardly solitary. I typically eschew local news because only two things really happen in municipalities: car wrecks and people accomplishing their tasks. Quite frankly, none of us have a particular appetite to monitor either one of those things.

Yet, the steady drip ... drip ... drip of bad news eventually gets to us all. It is the hum of the appliance that is not quite working right or the pesky mess at the corner of the office that we will get to one of these days. We imagine that it doesn't bother us and that we are "above" caring about it; but it is constantly on and it is constantly draining our energy.

One thing to remember about bad news is that it is conditioned to be accepted quicker than good news. This makes sense. If a wild cat appears in front of me, I want to be thinking about whether to fight or flee not how this fits into the great cosmological narrative. The amygdala kicks in, presses the emergency button in my brain; and tells the prefrontal cortex to sit back. When the danger passes, my brain gets back to proper analysis. But what happens when we are never allowed to let the danger pass? We need a bigger and bigger hit. So instead of a car accident, we need a pile up. Instead of a murder, we need a shooting spree. The dual priority of jobs, money and the work itself, are to be found in the news as well. In yesteryear, the government mandated standards, now it is left up the market alone; but that is a different story for another day.

The second thing is how good things happen and how bad things happen. Bad things are jarring moments: the needle on the record skipping, the moment we realize we have a paper cut, the one word we probably shouldn't have said. Good things are constant: a happy marriage, a fulfilling job, a healthy body. It is harder to report on good things and it is easier to take them for granted; but when we record the sudden things and merely pass over the constant things, our records become skewed. Then, when we sit down and take account of things, we seem to only be able to tally up the bad things.

Is it any wonder that so many people are so down in the dumps? There are many cures for the bad news. Some people look for "others" to blame. Our political and cultural dialogue seems replete with this perspective. Yet, as anyone with eyes can see, it is hard to see that this has made "good news" more readily available. Maybe we have all just sort of given up and are doubling down with the depression? Another option is to try and flood the field with good news, but apart from the rescue dog and the scientific break through (which may or may not pan out by the way); good news just doesn't work the same way as bad news.

Instead, we must stop looking at the inputs and focus on our processing. We need to understand that everyone tells a narrative with bias. We need to remember that even their biases are not our own (or even factually correct), the stories come from that perspective. For instance when I read a "Conservative" paper and a "Liberal" paper, I accept the writer's bias (intentional or otherwise). When I read a book by a Catholic theologian or a Calvinist theologian, I can accept our commonalities and differences. This doesn't excuse people for being lazy in their writing; but it does help us break down the news so that it is less dispiriting than if we heard it as "unvarnished" facts.

Ultimately, the good news is that there is a constant story which will not be interrupted by the daily reports. When we zoom out, the universe is either uncaring and ambivalent to our existence or there is something that is working to keep the chaos at bay. This doesn't mean the bad things won't happen or that we can become apathetic in this life; but it does mean that the bad things aren't the end of the story and that we can be participants alongside that which is bringing about a happy ending.