Confessions of a Six Figure Professional Blogger

A Perspective on World Events [#21]

January 13, 2009 | Blogging Video Tips

I recorded this video aboard the Crown Princess, a cruise ship operated by Princess Cruise Lines. You can probably tell since I’m obviously out over the water. :)

When you take a cruise, it offers a chance to relax. It also (at least for me) shows the real dichotomy that exists in the world. When you are out at sea sitting on a balcony, you experience calmness. There isn’t much noise except for the sound of the water going by.

At the same time, I connected to the Internet from the ship. I did so mainly to monitor how my membership drive on PCMech last week was going in my absence. However, I also checked out the news headlines. As usual, the news was death, confusion, economic problems, war, politics.

Yet, there I am on the open sea. About 70% of our planet is nothing but ocean. Even on the other 30%, the majority of people living there are just going about their lives. Living. Eating. Working.

It starts to put into perspective what is reported in the news.

Look, the job of the news is to get ratings so as to sell advertising. It really isn’t different than many of us do with our blogs. We don’t make money if people don’t visit our sites. News organizations likewise make no money if they have no readers/viewers. So, what do they do? The make the world seem chaotic so that we’ll stick to the news, hanging on their every word.

24/7 news is like a cancer on our society. It creates unrest in the minds of people. That unrest is generated and then backed up and magnified through group “proof”. In other words, if enough people say things are bad, well by God, they must be bad. Right?

If everybody would just calm the hell down and disconnect from society for a little while, you’ll see that calmness pervades our world while a few select people are very busy trying to stir it up again.

Perhaps you need to be at sea to have such thoughts.

And because I was at sea, I decided to take this momentary break from confessions of a six figure blogger to simply make an observation.

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  • Alex, while it's good to know what's going on as it relates to one's life, the problem is this country (the US) creates much of the "problems" in the world by meddling in other people's affairs whether welcome to or not. And then of course the mass-media then has something to "sell" and "hook" people with. ALL of the US's involvement with the Middle East is pure chest-thumping. Those people had those conflicts, in many cases, since long before the US was born. It isn't our problem. I don't think most of those people even thought once about making it our problem - they were too busy with their own problems.

    I guess what I'm getting at is the close ties of the military and the media. As David suspects, it's all intentional, a power/money-making scheme.
  • I agree with the premise. However, it depends on the resolution you are looking at. Underneath those calm waters, wars are being waged, sea creatures are fighting for survival, and some are losing the battle while others are winning and prospering. The same can be said for humanity. As an airline pilot, I used to look out at the vistas nearly everyday from 37,000 feet and the whole country looked like that...calm and quiet. Yet, just like on the sea, down below, wars were being waged, battles won and lost. This logic extends to nearly every aspect of life. The question we ask is, do we really care about every battle that is being waged? The 24/7 news is akin to someone telling us every single fish that is getting eaten under the sea.
  • Out at sea, on a balcony on a sunny day sounds like a great place to be.

    I love the fact that some scenarios and some places just have a feel and ambiance about them that's like no other place.
  • Alex: That's true, and I'm not preaching irresponsibility. What I am preaching is being causative about what you let into your personal space. If you surround yourself with doom and gloom, you run the risk of becoming more like that doom and gloom.

    The world is a lot calmer than the news makes it look.
  • Alex
    Dave,
    I tend to agree with what you say - mostly. I don't believe we can simply tune out what is going on in the rest of the world, and yes much of it is bad (see the Middle East, Darfur, etc.). All of this stuff actually does effect our lives in America, and is important to know about and be mindful of as educated citizens, if nothing else so that we can put pressure on elected officials to do something about it.
  • Well said David.

    I guess that I am really fortunate that my office is located in the middle of a 100 acre farming property. When I need a break from my Cyberian enterprise, I just walk with my dog across the paddock and say hello to my horse or my Irish Dexter cattle.

    As an income stream, my farm is part of the old economy, and I only keep it for the joy it brings me. Thanks to the internet and the income it brings me, I can remain on my farm and enjoy this wonderful lifestyle that I have.

    However, my real point is to extend a little what I hear you are saying.

    The internet is a fundamental cause of this downturn. There are a few other dramas going on like the sub-prime crisis but underneath all of that is an economy which is shedding its skin. And just like steam and electricity in earlier times, information is the new skin of the new economy which is destroying the old way of doing things. For example, note all those newspapers going broke.

    The genuine infopreneurs will lead us out of this downturn. By genuine I mean the Thomas Edisons who invent real lightbulbs that progress our planet; not speculators who create fatuous, profitless, public dot-com companies.

    So, is it not marvellous to contemplate that little box you have on the seat on your balcony. Look out over your balcony and you can see a good portion of the world. Look into that little screen and you can see the world from a whole new perspective.

    For the first time in our history, we are in close touch with each other throughout the world. And that is the basis of an exciting new economy.

    Thank you for sharing your wonderful little corner of our world.
  • Alan
    I think what we need is "balance", there is a lot of BS going on out in the world but we need to be aware of our surroundings and what is going on that has a direct and indirect effect on our lives. We need to keep our eye on government and tell our legislatures what we think out here in the rest of the world. If we don't they will be self serving with out input from their constituents. It's not that hard send an email to a senator and let them know what you think.
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