[This post sucks.]
The thing with news is, tomorrow there will be more of it. In other words, it will change. So if you spend a bunch of time learning about today’s news, you’re wasting that time because tomorrow or the next day some other stuff will happen and you’ll have to learn that too. Do I have to spell it out?
Putting any effort into this is for suckers.
It’s like eating. It’s pointless. You’re just going to digest it all and tomorrow you’ll have to eat more again. That’s why IV drips are the way to go. Let nurses and machines provide you with those useless, essential nutrients.
I wasn’t always this wise. In fact, only yesterday I was one of those idiots who actually went to the trouble of being informed enough to have a “conversation” (as in, talking to each other in a way that we challenge each other and learn from it). Not only was that attitude incredibly pompous and self-absorbed (to be so concerned with how much I know about the world), but it was — as I already said — a waste of time.
For example, in today’s Globe and Mail they make some points here and here that I’ve been harping on for months — months wasted.
Here I’ve been following this stuff closely, writing things and linking like a freaking madman, and if I’d only waited a few months, newspapers would have done all that for me — no thinking required! (Maybe I should make that my new blog name.) It was even dumber of me to dig deeper to try understanding where our ideas came from and where they’re going, as I ought to expect newspapers will eventually get around to that as well.
Meanwhile, when I met with friends, all I wanted to do was talk about the economy and politics and it totally fucked up people’s Rock Band concentration and the flow of gossip about sports and television drama.
Worse, when people asked me about my progress on the novel they imagined I’ve been writing, I had nothing to say because I’d never even thought about writing a novel – because I’ve been too busy thinking and writing about these pointless real world challenges.
And the thing with real world challenges is, it’s already someone’s job to look after them, and it’s best that we stay out of their way.
Think about economics: professional economists have spent their lives learning about it. Everything they say is the truth. So that’s that.
And take Rick Wagoner: what he thinks is best for GM is almost certainly what’s best. He should know more about GM’s death spiral than anyone, having been at the company throughout its course — and cheif executive for the worst of it. So he’s the man to steer ‘er through the storm. Likewise for Vikram Pandit at Citigroup (or Citiwhatever).
And who better than Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to hand out the money? After all, he was a career-long investment banker, and since that industry was essentially wiped out, he’s like the proverbial dinosaur that survived — which is pretty special.
Not to mention the fact he was appointed by George W. Bush, who, as president of the most powerful nation on Earth, is obviously the most competent person on the planet (his mind must grasp insights and truths we of lesser cognition cannot even begin to guess at).
But I shouldn’t even be talking like this. It’s something I should leave to professional journalists… hard-drinking newspapermen with little notebooks tucked into their fedoras [oops, I think I was thinking of those little cards that say "Press"], who’ve been covering the same beats for decades, for papers that have existed since the dawn of time and will continue to be printed into eternity.
Who better to cope with all of these unprecedented changes than the people who are most invested in the past? By participating through blogs etc, we’re only making it more difficult for them to keep doing things their way.
