What do you care about? I mean REALLY care about?
Discussion
NDA said:
m3jappa said:
I care about way too much, Its actually not a nice way to live.
I think it shows great empathy for others in a world where people are far too self indulgent.I obviously care for my family and friends, that's a given. But I also care about Ukrainians, about the damage our government is doing, about the damage the American president is doing. I do not live in any kind of 'rage', far from it - I am perfectly happy. But I do care about others.
Ignoring it all, and putting the suffering of the world, and all the bad news, completely out of your mind, whilst sitting happily chatting about the good life with your small circle of friends and family, whilst is absolutely fine IMO if it helps you remain happy, peaceful, and sane.
My view is that we are just passengers. There is no point in even really thinking about conflicts like Ukraine. What good will it do? What can we do about it? Even when I woke up on the morning after the last general election, I remember not even bothering to look who had won.
I vote in our elections when the opportunity arises, but thats it now. Nothing else. Actually, full disclosure: I didn't even vote in the last general election. I had no interest in any of the parties available.
I have some friends who we have known for 20+ years now, and whilst they were always absolutely lovely people, I always thought they were somewhat unusual in that they were quite insular and self-absorbed, certainly compared to how I was at the time. They never watched the news, they never read any papers, they have never been on internet forums, and they never discuss politics or news when we are with them. They never bother voting, and they don't have any interest in government or what is happening in our Parliament.
All they care about or think about is: Their friends, their home, their kids, where to go on holiday, music, going to shows and concerts, enjoying nice food and fine wine, doing family activities, leisure activities and working hard building their own business. That's it. Nothing else outside that bubble. It's like the rest of the country, and certainly the world, doesn't exist to them. Does not exist in the slightest.
It baffled me for many years. I had spent my whole life reading and watching national and global news. Absorbing information about political situations, conflicts, the stock markets, economies, governments, foreign policy, diseases and world health, the housing market, worrying about what decisions our various governments would make next, taxes, finances, just everything really. I was the sort of person who would sit thinking about the state of our high streets, and wondering what strategy the government could implement to solve the issue.
And yet here were these people, my friends, who didn't know anything about any of it, and more importantly, didn't want to know.
It has taken me a long time to realise that they were the ones doing it right. They are probably the happiest and most easy going people I know. Sure, they have issues in their lives like everyone else. How well are the kids doing at school, is business still going ok, and all that sort of thing. But the rest of their lives simply revolve around which friends they should meet for dinner this weekend? What sort of wine do you fancy? What would the kids like to do on Saturday? Shall we book tickets for that concert? They are as happy as Larry, whoever he is, and I get the impression that they would be far less happy if they attempted to care or think about issues that they can do nothing about or that don't affect them.
NDA said:
SWoll said:
NDA said:
I think it shows great empathy for others in a world where people are far too self indulgent.
I obviously care for my family and friends, that's a given. But I also care about Ukrainians, about the damage our government is doing, about the damage the American president is doing. I do not live in any kind of 'rage', far from it - I am perfectly happy. But I do care about others.
Being overly empathetic is often in itself self indulgent.I obviously care for my family and friends, that's a given. But I also care about Ukrainians, about the damage our government is doing, about the damage the American president is doing. I do not live in any kind of 'rage', far from it - I am perfectly happy. But I do care about others.
Not much to add but the proliferation of “always on” media has led to an unhealthy addiction to tablets and phones and the bile spewed out by them.
If you are of the demographic that views this forum, you are also probably more roundly affected by the news as you follow it more closely and possibly also facing up to your own mortality (if kids have come along or you are into “mid life” for example).
As a result, your mental health may be suffering and you might not even recognise it.
Absolute fact that turning off the news and getting out into nature instead for a walk will make you feel better.
Be in no doubt that the designers of the phones and the websites that run upon them are paying billions to get you in and get you trapped. And one thing that sadly everyone seems drawn to is bad news.
Yes there are wars and maniacs out there, always have been.
“It has always been thus.”
In the Middle Ages, if you were to be heard, you would have needed to be a religious cleric (peasants didn’t learn to read and write) so the messages passed out to the community were highly controlled.
Now we have Facebook and X and everyone has a voice and an opinion…..
It’s proven that good news does not sell.
Therefore, at the most basic level, if you subscribe or seek out any form of news, you are only seeking anxiety.
Having gone very painfully through this loop myself to the point of near breakdown, the best advice I was given was:
“unless it’s on your doorstep or you can do something about it, you are wasting your worry”.
There would have been equivalents of all the same players discussing their world events via their media of the time throughout history. If we were Roman, we’d be sat on the lav decrying the course the senate was taking. Etc.
One huge antidote to this is to get outside and meet real people.
The real world IS NOT the media feed we seem to have surrendered our happiness to. That is just a hyper refined toxic version of it.
Go walk on a beach, say hello to a few people and have a drink somewhere. But get off your phone & off the TV news channels for one week and tell me you don’t feel better about things!
If you are of the demographic that views this forum, you are also probably more roundly affected by the news as you follow it more closely and possibly also facing up to your own mortality (if kids have come along or you are into “mid life” for example).
As a result, your mental health may be suffering and you might not even recognise it.
Absolute fact that turning off the news and getting out into nature instead for a walk will make you feel better.
Be in no doubt that the designers of the phones and the websites that run upon them are paying billions to get you in and get you trapped. And one thing that sadly everyone seems drawn to is bad news.
Yes there are wars and maniacs out there, always have been.
“It has always been thus.”
In the Middle Ages, if you were to be heard, you would have needed to be a religious cleric (peasants didn’t learn to read and write) so the messages passed out to the community were highly controlled.
Now we have Facebook and X and everyone has a voice and an opinion…..
It’s proven that good news does not sell.
Therefore, at the most basic level, if you subscribe or seek out any form of news, you are only seeking anxiety.
Having gone very painfully through this loop myself to the point of near breakdown, the best advice I was given was:
“unless it’s on your doorstep or you can do something about it, you are wasting your worry”.
There would have been equivalents of all the same players discussing their world events via their media of the time throughout history. If we were Roman, we’d be sat on the lav decrying the course the senate was taking. Etc.
One huge antidote to this is to get outside and meet real people.
The real world IS NOT the media feed we seem to have surrendered our happiness to. That is just a hyper refined toxic version of it.
Go walk on a beach, say hello to a few people and have a drink somewhere. But get off your phone & off the TV news channels for one week and tell me you don’t feel better about things!
tting on the pavement you’ve gone too far.Family, friends and pets. That's it.
Couple of things that do sicken me though
1) cruelty to animals
2) I'm sure there is enough wealth in the world for nobody to be hungry or homeless. Why do humans always need to have more than other humans when they really don't need any more than they have? What's the need to have billions in a bank account?
Still, I'm sure when the earth is fed up of us parasites we'll be gone in a flash and hopefully some more deserving species will flourish
Couple of things that do sicken me though
1) cruelty to animals
2) I'm sure there is enough wealth in the world for nobody to be hungry or homeless. Why do humans always need to have more than other humans when they really don't need any more than they have? What's the need to have billions in a bank account?
Still, I'm sure when the earth is fed up of us parasites we'll be gone in a flash and hopefully some more deserving species will flourish
g3org3y said:
Quattr04. said:
How do people cope with being so outraged by everything?
You should ask some of the regular posters who contribute multiple times all day every dayFriends, family, health and making the most of our limited time on this world.
I really struggle to see why people care so much about politics, religion, wars, and all the "woke" stuff. Heck even if there was an all out war and Russia started invading, I'd just pack up and take my talents elsewhere.
I really struggle to see why people care so much about politics, religion, wars, and all the "woke" stuff. Heck even if there was an all out war and Russia started invading, I'd just pack up and take my talents elsewhere.
Timothy Bucktu said:
Stopping watching the news is definitely healthy for you. I haven't watched the news on TV for... when did Covid get going?...ah yeah, about 5 years.
I don't miss it.
Same here. The Covid coverage was so depressing. We used to have BBC news on every morning as we were getting up, now it`s Smooth FM I don't miss it.
Red9zero said:
Same here. The Covid coverage was so depressing. We used to have BBC news on every morning as we were getting up, now it`s Smooth FM
Ha ha! Same here... every morning: "Alexa, play Smooth FM"I used to put Sky news on whilst getting showered, dressed, breakfast, Radio 4 or LBC in the car, and more Sky or BBC News in the evening etc.
Never do any of that that anymore. It's all Apple playlists, Smooth FM, Jazz FM, and similar.
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