TIME OUT
My question sparked an interesting discussion, to which I shall return soon, but every so often I get so depressed by the godawful state of American public life that I just retreat into FreeCell and Spider Solitaire and the like. I am painfully aware that things have been awful for my entire adult life, but I am naturally optimistic and manage most of the time to cope with it and retain my good spirits. Lately, it has been hard.
I suspect all of us who comment on your blog do something similar.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I load up old computer games from the late eighties early nineties when I'm *really* bummed politically. When I'm minimally bummed low-ish-brow novels.
There's something to be said for Nietzsche's amor fati.
ReplyDeleteMy own palliative was to give up watching, "Morning Joe", before going to work. I leave the house now with a much jauntier spring in my step. Still watch Rachael Maddow's show at night, though. Can't quite give that one up.
ReplyDeleteI go to bed too early. Have to see it on line the next day.
ReplyDeleteLong ago, when "progressive" radio started featuring the same sort of hyper-active, innuendo-laden sort of punditry as the right-wing stuff, replete with advertising for questionable items, I decided it was mentally healthier and intellectually less confusing to have nothing to do with them. As a result, I've come through the last couple of years without suffering psychological damage. So I'd urge people to give up on the shows mentioned by jgkess. I leave it others, should there be any so minded, to suggest what other hazardous materials ought to be avoided.
ReplyDeletePS. If anyone wishes to see just how intellectually depraved many anti-Trump resisters have become, take a look at some of the comments respecting Assange's arrest now appearing on Democrat-supporting Daily Kos and in the NYTimes. "Tribalism" isn't just a right-wing disease, it seems. (Some are even suggesting he should just be picked up and packed off to Guantanamo.)
PPS. I play chess against my computer. I set the difficulty level--very low--at just the point where I sometimes get into a promising situation, but I never win. It's reassuring when I manage 41 moves; it's a warning when I only manage 25 that I should go for a walk.
Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteAgreed.
About 15 years ago during the Lagos administration (I live in Chile), I used to watch TV news and it would set me such a rage that I could not eat dinner. Lagos was a Bill Clinton/Tony Blair type 3rd way "socialist". I stopped watching TV news and when my partner and her son left, I gave them my TV set. I listen to news on the radio and read a lot online. Not seeing such detestable people on TV has done wonders for my mental health and digestion. It's much easier for me to tune out Chilean President Piñera when I hear him on the radio than when I see him on TV and he always lies or speaks in meaningless cliches. The TV image gets on one's nerves in a way that reading the same news story doesn't.
I also play chess against the computer, but I set it at level 1 so that I generally win. I need to win something from time to time after so many defeats in life.
It's not so much a matter of winning/losing, s. wallerstein. It's just healthy to have it regularly confirmed, even by an algorithm, that one isn't as clever as one would like to be.
ReplyDeleteHere's a tiny bit of good news:
ReplyDelete"The youth of America don’t want to serve in the military any more. The situation has become so dire that just to maintain America’s ground forces – the army and Marine Corps – the two services are resorting to unprecedented pay raises, bonuses and socialist trappings." - The Guardian . http://bit.ly/2uYJOFj
Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteLife has confirmed all too often that I'm not as clever as I would like to be or as I once imagined that I was.
I never had that problem. Long before comouters, I would gratify my desire for triumph by beating my son at chess. Then he turned seven, and I started to lose, so I quit. :)
ReplyDeleteI also gave up nearly all radio news, and all television news, and also nearly all youtube news. It really does do wonders for one's sanity!
ReplyDelete