Before we left Nassau, I took a peek at the news and saw all the furor on the latest crisis. Looks like the media has squeezed every bit of scare-sales they could from the economic crisis and now they're going to scare us with a health one - swine flu.
Now there could very well be a swine flu epidemic coming, but right now I'll look for facts and ask questions. For example, how many of these swine flu cases existed before they started testing for them all over the world? I don't know about you, but when I go to the doctor with nausea, scratchy throat and a temp, he says, "You've got flu" and sends me home. There's no testing, no examination of what 'strain' my flu is. How much swine flu was being passed around before the media got bored with the financial crisis and needed something new to write about?
Scare mongering sells and it does something else that is much worse. What is your reaction every time one of these scary stories comes out? Do you think, "Wohoo, I'm going to run right out and have an adventure"? Probably not. Or are you more likely to say, "I think I'll play it safe for a while, stick close to home, not take any risks right now - I'll just go to work, stay home and for a treat, I'll go to the mall and go shopping"? How many of these crisises keep us from living our lives to the fullest?
Think back over the last ten years or so, how many times have you felt like you should just hunker down and wait it out (it being whatever crisis the media is focusing on)? I suspect that if you look at the media stories over the past 10 years, a pattern will emerge - the annual health crisis, a terrorism crisis and, oh yeah, it must be about time for an economic crisis. Then just for funsies, let's throw in a political crisis.
Now many of these things are very real and could be a crisis. Whether or not they are, they're certainly dressed up as such - because it sells. I read an article recently entitled, "Hundreds Ill in New York", pretty scary stuff, right? Well it was until I read the whole article, 82 children had stayed home from a school. Now last time I checked '82' wasn't 'hundreds' and I'm not surprised that with all the furor, moms are keeping their children home from school.
If I were a conspiracy theorist, and if I wanted to maintain a docile and productive workforce, I'd scare the heck out of them every few months or so. Keep them anxious and a bit fearful, but not panicking. Keep them worried enough that they stay in line (keep going to work, watching TV and buying at the mall), but don't go off and do anything radical - like live out their dreams.
I don't advocate being an ostrich and sticking your head in the sand, but I do believe in carefully filtering the amount of 'media crisis of the day' that I am exposed to. We'll never make the most of our 750,000 Hours if someone is always jumping out of dark corners and shouting, "Aaaarrrgghh" at us!
And if I'm going to get scared, I'd rather do it myself, thank you, rather than having it manufactured for me by the media. (Signing off as we crest over the top of a 10 foot wave!)
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