It’s Impossible To Focus

Is it just me, or is it the world?

Photo by David Hurley on Unsplash

You don’t have to read this. I probably shouldn’t be writing it. I’m literally contributing to the problem by writing about the problem.

OMG, as the kids say.

I don’t know how we’re supposed to focus on just one thing and fix it.

Do we concentrate on COVID, or monkeypox, or gun control, or civil rights, or Russia, or the economy, or homelessness, or the environment?

It used to be that there were groups of junior Rotarians who would organize luncheons and bake cookies for bake sales and sort of chip away at whatever their pet project was. Unwed mothers. Leaded gas. Maybe they’d ask Ralph Nader to come and give a talk.

But the world wasn’t literally dying then.

I can’t even sit down and concentrate on reading a book for five minutes, let alone think about how to fix all of the massive problems we’re facing.

And if we can’t come up with a solution on an individual level, how are things going to get fixed? Because if we keep thinking that “they” will fix things, meaning “the government” or “politicians”, then we can just bend over and kiss our asses good-bye, because that’s clearly not working.

And we need to fix something right now because pretty soon we’re going to be living on nuts and berries and fending off roving hordes of YouTubers.

Are things objectively worse (yes), or are we just so bombarded with information that things just seem worse because of the way bad news attracts ratings and is therefore always front and center?

The saying If it bleeds, it leads wasn’t invented yesterday, but now the bleeding leads on five or 25 or 2500 different platforms, instead of only on the front page of a local newspaper.

Fading affect bias tells me that I’m selectively remembering a halcyon past that didn’t exist.

But maybe, comparatively speaking, it did.

I can’t even enjoy music because the radio plays the same songs over and over and over (Dua Lipa, Shawn…