And far too many people seem willing to forsake all else to ogle every one of them.
I thought a silver lining in the coronavirus dark cloud was that stay-at-home orders might force people to reconnect with loved ones. Silly me.
Instead, it appears most people are spending their time making videos they think will get the most “Likes” on social media. But, unlike fellow critic Piers Morgan, I’m convinced that to even acknowledge these desperately seeking narcissists is to give them too much of the attention they seek; therefore, enough said.
Frankly, while enforcing stay-at-home orders, the best thing governments can do to promote public health (a.k.a. the general welfare) might be to require all social-media companies to disable their networks. I know, fears of mass suicides would abound. But, maybe, just maybe then people would discover the holistically therapeutic benefits of communicating and interacting, presently and intimately, with loved ones.
Meanwhile, isn’t it crazy, even scary how the media can so easily create the impression that nothing else matters (or is even going on) in the world except panic-stricken focus on this crisis?
Given the suspension of all sports and cultural events worldwide, I fully appreciate the limitations afoot. Still, this does not preclude reporting on many ongoing major news events – as the following 10 questions attest:
- Are Pakistan and India trip-wiring towards another war over India’s mistreatment of Muslims in Kashmir and India?
- Are US and Iran just exchanging blows in the shadows after they openly exchanged fire earlier this year?
- How is Australia recovering from its historic bushfires?
- Is Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu using the coronavirus to stave off not just conceding defeat in recent elections but also facing trial on charges of fraud, breach of trust, and bribery?
- Has Russian President Vladimir Putin just emulated Chinese President Xi Jinping by getting his Kremlin-controlled Duma to rubberstamp his plan to serve as president for life?
- Has Brexit completely exited as a major concern for the global economy?
- Has Bernie Sanders effectively conceded the Democratic presidential nomination to Joe Biden … and where the hell is Joe?
- Are the migrants in Latin America, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia – who featured in so many news stories before corona – heeding stay-at-home orders…?
- What has become of Venezuela – whose despotic leader President Trump was threatening to depose?
- What has become of Brazil – whose despotic leader its people were threatening to overthrow?
I never thought seeing anyone’s mug on TV screen could incite more instant aversion than seeing Trump’s. But seeing windbag NY Governor Andrew Cuomo’s these days is beginning to test that proposition. No doubt because, even though he’s far more coherent, what he says is rarely any more newsworthy than the bilge “Drumpf” spews every time he opens his big mouth.
Cuomo only needs to give a few updates, reinforce some guidelines, and issue some admonitions. But, even with de-rigueur political embellishments, that should take no more than a 30-minute press conference (as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson demonstrates every day while even sharing his time with select members of his cabinet). Yet this grandstanding … narcissist is commanding and the media are granting more than an hour every day for his performance. Unfriggin’believable!
Imagine the media clusterfu*k if every governor of every state assumed his prerogative – even on a relative basis. And imagine this playing out every day for the next 12 weeks … or more. The point is that, even though highly rated today, it can only be a matter of days before even Cuomo’s daily, Groundhog-Day briefings begin breeding contempt. Prepare to shoot your TV now!
Finally, one of the many side effects of this coronavirus is that we are becoming a nation of Monkish germaphobes. As such, we risk breeding offspring with immune systems so weak, the common cold could become as deadly to them as this virus is to us. Which puts a rather insidious twist on the Marxist maxim about sowing the seeds of one’s own destruction … no?
Related commentaries:
coronavirus…
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