What Is A Journalist But A thoughtful Interpreter Of Events

In a way, obviously, as responsible citizens, we should all be such individuals. We should all try to be thoughtful interpreters of events because we are supposedly in possession of the power of the vote of the majority. Not so easy, though, when you already have a day job (that wants to cut you away from all of this outside stuff and focus on some, usually meaningless in the grand scheme of things, process to make somebody else a lot of profit), of course, and are pulled in a dozen directions at once every day to meet the responsibilities of that job, in addition to whatever things you still do to have a life, and still find time to catch up on events; and the real miracle, of course, is that many millions of us try to do just that, as much as we can in our spare time. Which is, naturally, why we have journalists around to help out; just like we keep other specialists around to help do not only what we will never have the time to do, but also do what we are not nearly so deeply trained to do; however that training was obtained.

The problem here, though, is that trying to keep tabs on things these days is fundamentally unique as a task area in commercial life now, which is, unfortunately, most of daily life for most Americans. And that uniqueness stems from the fact that "what's going on" is part of the total immersion environment that is the electric age of experience retrieval. And this is so because the many means to spread this saturation out are becoming actual parts of what we wear, what we carry every day, in every interaction we have, and what surround us in more and more of the places where we do the actual interacting. We might eventually even incorporate translative interface tech directly into our bodies so that a great deal of what we know will be via digitizations (by various means) of the things our biological sensors have been responsible for in the past (which may well put a hard to foresee strain on the current trifecta of meaning spaces we have now -- Physical meaning space. Mind meaning space. And body meaning space); perhaps even creating an altogether new meaning space all its own; a name for which I hope does not include the word "virtual;" and for reasons for which I honestly cannot, as yet, articulate properly enough). And the big part of the reason for this is so that this mammoth, commercial enterprise monster, we call an economy, can continue to sell to the same level that it is able to produce.

Another unique aspect of what these people face is the fact that what they are trying to get at, as well as what they are then trying to transmit, which we typically call information, is also, unfortunately, indistinguishable from money; because money and information are literally, and figuratively, the same thing (the result of the electrification of Capitalism). As such such, somebody, just as with the rest of us, has to be making a profit from their specialized task in delivering said, thoughtfully collected, and interpreted, new thing that might actually be critical to be aware of, information. And that means these people have to work a nearly impossible balancing act of trying to make, that thing that might actually be critical to know, be both true to its needed intent, but also be true, to whatever degree possible, to being a sellable commodity. No profit no message after all.

Then there's the other thing.

Yes, unfortunately, there is another thing.

More and more of what we are being made aware of is, in and of itself, making us crazy. And for numerous reasons.

1. There are complex problems that new events constantly remind us of, but for which, it now seems, a regular pattern of "nobody has any solutions for" has emerged; at least for which our established "deciders" can agree upon as pertains to who is going to pay for it.

2. Great need around the planet accelerates almost daily it seems. So much chaos exists in so many places that desperation forces civilians to risk even more peril as refugees, collecting here and there, and nobody knowing what to do with them, as the deprivation, and starvation continue to worsen.

3. So many belief systems, whose particulars in attitudes, behavioral norms, and perhaps even overall cultural/structural makeup, are offensive, in a wide variety of ways. So offensive, in fact, that many combinations automatically form where one sees the other as completely intolerable; so much so even to place violence against other belief groups into a part of their belief systems, at various times. And because we have the event collection, and dissemination systems we have; some of which have no qualms whatsoever as to how, high fidelity graphic, they may resort to in accomplishing that delivery; because of that we have this massive new matrix, of things we thus have a figurative sense of; of everything that might be offensive from others, seeming to be pushed into our faces; having, continuing the metaphor, our noses rubbed in the awful parts of frames of seeing things that obviously make no sense to us.

And that's just the first part of the "other thing."

The second part of the "other thing" is why those three items I just listed impact us so devastatingly. And that reason is that our new operating environment necessitates a very different kind of sense strategy for a sentient meaning processor. And this is, of course, where the theories of Marshall McLuhan come in.

He talked a lot about the differences between old oral cultures, and then the typographic, literary cultures that followed. The ways they literally saw and conceived of the world differently. Now, unfortunately, we have all types of possible sensibilities at play at the same time. Now you can be either in an extreme alignment with one or the other, or you can try to work a synthesis of several at the same time. As such, not surprisingly, I tried, originally, to create Cosmolosophy as a synthesis of Mind meaning space, and what I now think of as Body Meaning space, because that's where most of the feeling side of things comes from. That this also includes physical meaning space as well, was in the meaning system of Cosmolosophy by default, naturally, because this has been the point of whole endeavor; namely that this has been an exercise in understanding not only our place, but my place, in particular, in existence. Having a chance to articulate this in greater detail, though, is an integral part of how I understand more of what it is I'm feeling; giving me, then, even more opportunity to articulate in even more detail yet (and of course more things to feel).

In any case, though, the bottom line here is that the sensory strategy of the time when Capitalism was formed is not the one we have now. And one of the main upshots of this new sensory conglomeration is that it demands both deep connection, as well as deep texture to the meaning systems that would make deep connection a positive thing both in practical, and physical space terms, but also in the meaning spaces of the body; which, in my humble opinion, is where most of spirituality lies.

This means folks, whether you realize it or not, that those three problems I listed are going to affect you at the deepest levels precisely because you want to be connected into a meaningful way to respond to them. Because that's human nature now. That's the very nature that makes us appreciate nature in the first place. Also the human nature that wants real community, where everyone feels that they have a meaningful role to play in being a part of it. All of which, I hasten to point out, staying with Capitalism will not provide us with.

So the bottom line here might be that our journalists are the canaries in a very importing form of mining operation. A mining operation that, we as citizens should be more aware of, and directly involved in. And the thing we need to ask ourselves is this: If these tweeties stop tweeting; stop baring witness to the things that must be born witness to, and are getting burned out in the process, what is one to expect to happen to the rest of us? Nothing very good I can assure you.

Being a Journalist is Terrible for Your Mental Health