There must be a hell of a lot of it out there at the moment. Cognitive dissonance, that is. I'm talking about what's happening in the media, at least here in New Zealand, and i'm told by friends elsewhere that it's the same for them. All this relentless doom and gloom, the end is nigh, and all that. I wrote about this last month and focused on the wherefore and why of the presses' behaviour, but i'm more interested at this point in how it's affecting people. I look around and I see that everyone seems to be doing fairly well. Far better than we are told we're doing.
That's where cognitive dissonance comes in. Being the news junkie that I am, I read the paper everyday, a weekly magazine and the six o'clock news. All that, plus the hourly news casts on the car radio. It's relentless. I don't remember the last time the six o'clock news didn't lead off with layoff statistics. There's at least one blog out there devoted to nothing else. Yet somehow nobody I know is experiencing any deprivation whatsoever. I'm not saying they're making this stuff up, but there's never anything about how one door closing leads to another opening. No optimism at all. The glass is half empty and getting more empty all the time.
Is it? I don't think so. Swings and roundabouts. It will all come right at some point, and yes, we don't know where the bottom is, but we will reach it, and when we do we will begin the long climb back. That's the way the world works. I keep that in mind, but as we're hammered with gloom at every turn it definitely creates cognitive dissonance.
I find myself with a sense of dread creeping in, and it's over nothing in particular. I'm busy feeling like everything is going pretty well, and then there's this niggle at the back of my mind: what if they're right? The press is evil! Seriously though, I know, stop reading the paper, stop watching the news. Sometimes I wish I could. I've been doing it since I was a wee lad. It's ingrained now. There's also a bit of the old don't let the bastards grind you down going on. Part of me doesn't want to let them win. I want to face their wails of doom and say Ha! Is that so wrong?
My concern is how all this will actually affect outcomes. Are others feeling the siren call of doom? I'm not aware that that's the case. No one I know is paying it any mind, but I wonder about the man/woman in the street. If people stop spending this whole thing will get worse in short order. There's all this hue and cry about rampant consumerism, and that's all fine and good, but my personal feeling is that now is not the time to put on the brakes. It can only end in tears.
If there's a better way out of this mess than keeping money flowing i'd sure like to hear about it. I'm reminded of the old saying, money is like manure, it doesn't do any good unless you spread it around. Some say those who have it should be doing exactly that, others want to decry base materialism. I think the debate about materialism would best be saved for after the world gets back on its feet. If we all become hermits now there's the possibility that it may stay that way for far longer than most would be comfortable with.
So anyway, those are my thoughts on these matters. I would be interested in what others think about it all if you're so inclined.
