I guess becoming numb to the circumstances around us has its benefits.
For example, let’s say you’re a blogger who trashes most everything in sight. After awhile, one gets used to all the yelling and shouting, and it sort of becomes ambient sound.
It’s the crying wolf too often syndrome: If your modus operandi is to constantly bang the drum, it’s pretty easy — a benefit, if you will — to tune out the yelling. You get used to it.
But this isn’t about the bloggers I love to read. Rather it’s about this numbing phenomenon. Getting used to stuff.
And getting used to stuff may not always be the right thing.
A couple of days after Vancouver went up in smoke — you know, all your neighbors shooting off fireworks for the Fourth celebration — we had a story on how things went:
“Destroyed church aside, Clark County’s … fling with fireworks caused fewer problems than fire officials had feared.”
A little later in the story, we said some guy might also lose a couple of fingers.
Now, the story was completely accurate. More importantly, the story was fair. It reflected that fire officials were pleased with the limited number of incidents.
But I twitched a bit when I read that story. I mean, how did we get to the point where you can burn down a church, have a guy lose a couple of fingers, and we’re OK with the results?
Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?
Well, I guess you get numbed to stuff, and then you get used to it.
In some cases, getting used to stuff is a good thing. Being able to accept bad stuff is actually a defense mechanism your body employs to protect itself.
o o o
So when it comes to information, what else does your body need to better tune things out? Well, information has to be put into perspective.
There’s a serious auto accident! We must do something!
There’s a serious auto accident five times a day, every day! Oh, OK.
Of course, ideally, knowing that we have too many auto accidents should prompt us to action. But too often, it simply numbs us. We get used to it.
One church and a couple of fingers? Hey, we’re doin’ good!
Ultimately, it’s really up to the public to decide what is acceptable. And it’s up to the public to decide when to become numb to things — when to tune things out — and when to demand action.
Our job as a newspaper is to bring you the information. Your job is to decide what to do with it.
Me? I tune the silly stuff out like the yelling blogs. I read them, mind you, but I look at them more like the novelty acts at the carnival.
But I also tune into stuff such as the reflective, poignant blogs. And there are many of them out there.
And, finally, here’s hoping we’re all engaged enough so that we correct the stuff that needs correcting, and that we never tune out the important stuff.
Lou Brancaccio is The Columbian’s editor. Reach him at 360-735-4505 or lou.brancaccio@columbian.com.
