Can we do better than this? September 28, 2008

I reckon so and I certainly hope so, but most of the media makes it pretty tough.

Not sure I’m able to say what “this” is at the moment – I haven’t read many newspapers or listened to much news lately, and when I had the radio on this week I thought I might as well not bother. The economy’s going pretty mushy, Marvin knows whether/how our planet can survive what we’re doing to it and all they talked about on the radio this week was whether Gordon Brown is “the right man” to see us through these economic times, and how well/poorly constructed various politicians’ conference speeches were. I’m sure there are plenty of other real crises happening in the world but like I said I haven’t listened to the news much lately.

I really must do something about my current lack of political or news awareness. I’m not involved in any political groups any more so I don’t pick things up that way. I do the very occasional bit of reading things like Socialist Worker but I also like to listen to news/the radio while I’m getting up in the morning – I do love my BBC radio!

One factor is – everyday things like getting up, getting dressed, eating etc take me so bloody long (being disabled) that I guess I want my news quite short so I can listen to it while I’m doing other things. And of course you don’t get quality discussion/hard questions in hourly news bulletins.

I can still do something about this though – after all I do get weekly CDs from the Talking Newspapers Association. But what do I subscribe to? “Arts And Entertainment Weekly” – no wonder I’m out of touch!

Having said that it was seeing a play that got me thinking about my current ignorance. In “Death Of An Anarchist” one highly talented and pissed off mimic runs rings round the authorities and brings some police to their knees in his quest to find the truth. Towards the end of the show he points out to the audience that we’re such fans in this country of voting (Big Brother etc), and asks us to now vote on whether or not he should set off a bomb, whether the society we’re making for ourselves is really the best we can hope for.

I found it a good show, and it got me thinking towards the end. I felt encouraged that the place was packed, and quite a few of the audience seemed pretty young. I wonder if the sixteenish year old I overheard yesterday saying “I hate politics” would have enjoyed it. I thought to myself as they went by “if what I’ve heard on the radio this week equals ‘politics’ I hate it too”.

Now I’m off to find some news to read, and see what else I can subscribe to from Talking Newspapers.