Listening Post: Global Weirding
Climatologists say that the most dire consequences of a warming climate will not be the actual temperature rise, but the disruption of long established patterns, and extreme swings in weather. The problem will not be the warm, but the weird–more storms, freakier storms, deeper droughts, bigger floods.
It seems to me that something similar is occurring in the news. As the 24/7 news cycle heats up, and new media fans the flames, the news has gotten pretty–well–weird. Even if we exclude the face-eating zombie attacks, god particles, any headline containing “UFO,” and all the political news, the mean global weird level appears to be on the rise.
Conclusive proof in Splendora bathroom.
I base this on science; an exhaustive fifteen minutes of research on Google yields the following evidence:
- Man pulls out crossbow in road rage incident
- Ted Nugent’s drummer flees police in golf cart
- Bjork serenades Denmark in giant worm dress
- Squads of mimes deployed in an effort to reduce nighttime noise pollution in Paris.
- Legoland employees replace manager’s Volvo with model made from 200,000 Legos
- The Pope’s astronomer says he would baptize aliens
- Two giant tortoises who spent 115 years as a couple “can’t stand the sight of each other any more”
- Family finds moldy image of Jesus in their bathroom
- Dozens of poisonous snakes, destined to be made into wine, escape on bus
Leaving aside for a moment the question of why anyone would want to make wine from poisonous snakes, I have to wonder whether weirdness, like carbon, accumulates in the atmosphere, and whether over time, we will reach a tipping point of runaway weird. Or did we already pass that point sometime back in the ’60s?
Tags: listeningpost
You owed us links, Dale. You owed us links.
oa: But then you wouldn’t have done your own “weird news” search. What’s the fun in that?
Dale
The bugs(blackflies, mosquitoes and deer flies) have been remarkably light this season, in the forests.
Dale, don’t tease us with these great news items and not provide us with the links! I’ve got to know if one of the tortoises found a new mate with a shinier shell!
Dale,
Good point. My daughter, a meteorology student some years ago, has been calling many of these phenomenon by the same name you have used.
The point is that patterns have changed drastically and we are the cause.
Thanks.
Thanks for the chuckle. No need for links. I have read or some of these “stories.”
But seriously, more and more often I find myself reacting to “news stories” with an “I don’t care.” This then causes me to make some off the wall comments on NCPR blogs because, well because so much news is irrelevant or there is nothing I can do about it.
There is just so, so much information and news floating around radio, TV and the Internet that one is tempted to scream, “Stop the World! I want to get off.”
This is real news. I hate all that politics shlop. It has always been weird. Now we all just get to read more about it.
That was fun!
Pete K is on the real trail. Who cares. The news is just one more way media sells itself. I think this is just a style change, the content has alway aimed at subverting democracy, in the name of democracy of course. Did we really just spend about half of the last three weeks exploring Jerry Sandusky’s shower room exploits?
The news, in (over-generalized) general, is like being plopped down in a 60,000 sq. ft. supermarket. In theory, it’s possible to select a healthy and affordable diet from among all the offerings. In practice all the marketing is pushing you toward poorer choices that support someone’s agenda.
I remember a study of infant nutrition, where babies were able to balance their own diets when given access to a random assortment of foods. They were, that is, until processed sugar was added to the mix. Weird news, sex news, pundit news, celebrity news–that’s the processed sugar. And everyone, inside the media and out, has a sweet tooth to a greater or lesser degree.
Maybe we’re just learning to take ourselves less seriously. Back in the time of Mark Twain, they had news, feverish news, and comical news, all rolled into one format without comment. It was up to the wise (or foolish) reader to discern the difference…the wheat from the chaff so to speak. Old newspapers were a hoot before McCarthyism and the cold war, and even then there was subversive humor if you were a skilled reader.
The era of political correctness has ruined most of the fun.
Dale,
I like your food store/news comparison. It is why I like a small supermarket instead of a “big box” super store.
I don’t like to spend a lot of time shopping. If I want to go on a hike, it certainly isn’t in some store.
When it comes to the “news,” I skip most of the sugar except for the comics. Don’t care about anyone in Hollywood, sports, entertainment.
Not interested in crime. Crime has always happened and will always happen.
Nothing shocks me. I don’t trust anyone who says, “I am so shocked” or “I am so offended.” Really? How old are you?
What I’m trying to say is the news that most interests me is the stuff that actually affects me and those close to me – and things I might actually be able to do something about.