Whenever I hear someone say that they don’t pay attention to the news or politics, usually because “it doesn’t affect me” and “there’s nothing I can do about all the bad news anyway,” they become – to me – part of the problem. True, personal ignorance may well be bliss in the short term, but we are all paying a very real price for that collective indulgence in ignorance. And it can only get worse, so long as people fail to put even minimal efforts into being responsible citizens. I think it’s absolutely unconscionable to live in and benefit from a society without putting a bit of time and effort into its common management and benefit.<\/p>\n
That said, I *do* understand and appreciate the pleasures of opting out. When I travel, I do my best to actively avoid any news that doesn’t involve my host country or next destination. For me, there is something quite satisfying about not<\/em> knowing about the latest idiotic Administration move, or next bit of campaign pandering, or manufactured bit of faux outrage from some astroturf interest group. So, for some time, I do<\/em> know and enjoy the bliss of ignorance. And to that end, I’ll be indulging myself in that bliss over the next couple of weeks. I’m off to [somewhere], and – save for the posting of a few nearly-finished drafts here and there (airports are good for that sort of thing) – I’m heading offline. Happy holidays to all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Whenever I hear someone say that they don’t pay attention to the news or politics, usually because “it doesn’t affect me” and “there’s nothing I can do about all the bad news anyway,” they become – to me – part of the problem. True, personal ignorance may well be bliss in the short term, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-society","category-travel"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t