I used to never make an effort to keep up with current events. If something is big enough, I'll find out about it. It's not that I don't care about what's going on in the world, but for one, I don't like how the news operates, two, there's too many unnecessary details, and three, the vast majority of it really isn't my concern.
A few years ago, I thought I'd make an effort to read news online every day. It's the sort of thing I felt guilty about not doing, you know? There's all these things people concern themselves with, and it makes me feel like a bad person to ignore it. I read stuff, but I'm not sure how much I got out of it. I took a break a few months ago, and when I tried looking at the news again, I found myself almost sick with disgust. Like I was violating some principle of mine by indulging in this stuff.
From my perspective, the news consists of one or two sort of major things that are currently going on, often kind of important. Then there's a few interesting things, but not written in the way that a more specialized source would. The rest is all of the absurd ways that people kill and hurt themselves and others. This is what particularly bothers me. There's no compassion in that. The news is reporting on people's misfortune because, deep down, some dark part of them thinks it's funny, and they know that people will read it. Do I really need to know this because it might happen to me? No. But people just accept it because it's the news! The news is serious stuff! It's the same principle behind the fact that sports are so accepted, so important, so universal, just because they're so established. Face it, sports are no sillier than my own interests (well, I'd be inclined to argue that, actually). But I digress.
OK, so there's that thing that happened with the oil in the gulf. I heard about that without really making an effort to. That's a pretty unfortunate thing that happened, make no mistake. But do I really care about who blames who, who should resign from what, etc., etc.? No, I'm just glad to hear that it got fixed (it did, sort of, right?). Anyway, what does it have to do with me? Nothing, really. There's no way that my knowing of this situation can help solve it, and my thoughts on it change nothing. However, everyone else does care. That's good, actually. It's good that the public forms opinions and debates things and pushes the world in this direction or that direction. That lets me sit back and do my thing while everyone else squabbles over this and that. I'm not saying that nothing in the news never makes me angry, or that nothing ever strikes my interest enough to follow it. It's just, I hardly see what anyone gains by informing me (as in, me specifically... the world at large can do more about it than I can).
Bah. See? Writing all this stuff makes me feel bad, but the truth of the matter is that I can't force myself to have the same interest in this stuff that everyone else has. Is this common with AS and the spectrum? There's so many things that are universally important or interesting or pressing to pretty much everyone. It makes me feel guilty that I can't get interested in this or that. Then again, I also feel a bit liberated, doing my thing while everyone else takes care of "important" stuff. All that common knowledge is just superfluous to me, and cluttering my brain with it is probably bad for my normal operation. If I'm different, I may as well focus on what makes me a valuable human being, rather than concern myself with things that everyone else is concerned with. That just detracts from my uniqueness and individuality, diluting my more specific potential.
As an aside, the whole thing with the plane landing on the Hudson was one of the greatest news items in a long time. That was a great story, and I feel people needed to see a truly heroic story. I guess I'm just drawn to happy things. I'll let other people bother with the negatives and the celebrity trash.
29 Jul 2010, 10:22 am
