The GW Bush election of 2000 was a huge watershed moment for me in terms of news coverage.
Before that, news was something that I consumed maybe once or twice a day.
Maybe I bought a newspaper - either the Guardian or the Telegraph... but occasionally the Times.
Maybe I listened to the "Today" programme on Radio 4 - or the "World at One - with 40 minutes of news and comments".
BUT, that was it.
News was not very much to do with "real life" - for most of the time.
News was a side show - but "real life" was about the real, tangible people around me all the time.
The very word "news" reveals why it is all nonsense.
It has to be about what is "new" - not what is genuinely most important or what we WANT to hear about.
"News" is a racket whereby we are given constant pre-packaged headlines that are designed to control our attention and make us think that the "current thing" is worth paying attention to... even if it is happening in another country, thousands of miles away, with almost no relevance whatsoever to how I am going to show love, truth and faithfulness to the people who are around me.
How many of us are like puppets of "news" so that whatever is the "current thing" gets our attention - but the really serious events around the world mean nothing to us... 😕
So, back to the GW Bush election....
THAT was the first time I realised that I could access "news" almost all the time!!
The election was very close - and it looked at first, to me, that Al Gore had won. He got about 500,000 more popular votes than GW... BUT, it was all about the electoral college.
I can't remember why I even cared about this!! It was an election in another country - and as a Christian who is a citizen of the Divine Kingdom, why should I care what irrelevant horse play happens in the meaningless pantomimes of earthly governments...
Any yet... somehow... I had been pulled into the drama, the tension, the "what ifs and maybes".
I found myself tuning in at all hours of the day & night to see how the cardboard chits on election cards were for Al or George!!! 🤪😅
I know... it sounds so pathetic and absurd... but I'm being honest about that brief week or two, in 2000.
YET.
YET...
That was opening a door to a consumption of "news" that changed so much.
Now, I knew that I could access "news" any time - and ALL the time... and so, under the ludicrous pretense that I was "caring" about the world or "staying informed" (🤪😅) I would allow myself to spend far more time trying to work out what my "policies" might be for Myanmar or Yemen or Iraq or Azerbaijan or Libya or Israel... or what rate of tax might be most "just"... or how to best organise the NHS... or what might be the most fair or reasonable voting system... or ... whatever, whatever, whatever!!
How absurd!!
How laughable!
YET.... and this is the really shameful thing...
In the past 25 years I have spent more time messing about with my own irrelevant opinions over all kinds of situations that have nothing whatsoever to do with me... than I have spent time dealing with the actual real lives of the people that live in my own street.
The King of kings never asked me to have an opinion on Ukraine or Myanmar or Sudan or tax policies or Papua New Guinea or China... or any other of the thousands of possible "news" stories that have nothing to do with me whatsoever.
BUT, the King of kings had quite a lot to say about loving neighbours, selling what I have, praying in a humble way, rejoicing in persecution, worshipping in spirit & truth, taking up a cross, laying down my life, standing firm in the faith and loving the LORD God with everything I have got.
Many mature Christians seem to be stepping completely away from the whole "news" racket.
I think it is time for me to do the same....