Thinking beyond headlines.
“What is the
world coming to!” My Dad said as he flung the paper back on the bar.“ Half the
kids in the country are below median score at maths, immigrants were taking
over the country and we’ll all be under water by 2030!” I pointed out that this
was the same paper that had branded all youth as scum and all MPs as cheats,
both of which he knew were untrue because he knows me and he also knows the
local MP as a personal friend.
It was an
unusual pleasure to catch my Dad out in a moment when he wasn’t thinking for
himself. Even for him, a sharply intelligent man, the culture of disappointment
is hard to resist as it is pedalled in the media: Nothing is as good as it used
to be, no one can be trusted, awful things are happening everywhere and more
often than before. In fact human nature is much the same: we are less violent
than twenty years ago, we are healthier in general than my Dad’s age group and
likely to live longer than previous generations. Volunteering is on the
increase, giving to charity is at the same level and the promised collapse of
the family unit made a decade ago by the same newspaper has just not happened.
The media
however have discovered that they can provoke a fear response in people through
misleading headlines. The emotional response to supposed disasters creates an
angry and pessimistic attitude that can suffocate the joy and spirit in people
like my Dad. Clear thinking and common sense are the only antidote that is
needed to such addiction to despair. The headline that tells us that 20% of
primary school children are illiterate really means that there is an 80% pass
rate in an English test across the country. Not bad. The picture of violence at
a street demonstration may cover 60% of a page in a newspaper but it probably
represents less than 1% of all those involved. Clear thinking and common sense
like this can break the spell of pessimism and sadness cast upon us all by
newspapers.
Optimism on the
other hand usually brings out the best in people and sets free the energy to
face and to change the real problems life presents every day. Clear thinking
helps us to see the positive and to build upon it. Logic allows us to reach deep into the reservoirs of
faith in people to find the life that can withstand the arid sadness of our
culture of disappointment.
So I was
delighted to catch my Dad being hoodwinked by a headline. I was smiling as I
pointed out that a median score was the middle score in a set of exam results
so 50% would usually be above it and 50% below. It was my Dad who needed to
brush up on his maths!
Reflection
Lord, give me a
mind that thinks
And an eye for
the logic that spots manipulation.
Help me to
protect my joy and enthusiasm
From the
culture of disappointment in which we all live.
Help me instead
to recognise real problems
And with the
energy of hope and faith in people
To make a
difference to those around me
And to build a
better world.
Teach me to
trust people
To count my
blessings and encourage goodness
And to allow
hope to triumph over despair
In my own
heart.
Give me the
wisdom to see the mirages
Created by an
overheating consumer society
And help me to
challenge and change
This daily culture
of disappointment.
