On the personal front, I
On the personal front, I am pleased to report that I am not doing what I did after 9/11, which is to say that I'm not glued to the damned TV. (It is damned, by the way. Watch the news too much and you'll think you are in hell.) I hope it's not just me, either. Whether you agree with this war or not, we're committed to it now, and we don't need to get all wobbly because we suffer casualties.
If you are having worries about the war -- and I don't mean the usual worries; I'm talking about full-blown anxiety here -- you might want to read this to get a little perspective. It's too easy to go along with whatever spin the media wants to give the day's events. And think about it -- they're in the business of making stories. So they'll play up the good days as "stunning victories" and play up the bad days as "crippling defeats".
Watch the news, but realize: the better they are at getting you to feel something, the more you are likely to keep watching; the more you watch, the more their ratings go up; the higher their ratings, the more they can charge for advertising. That isn't to say that they're maliciously manipulative. You just gotta recognize that the shivers you're getting and the pounding heart in your chest sound an awful lot like clinking coins bouncing around in their vaults.
Personally, my skin's a lot thicker than it was two years ago. If this article is right, maybe America's skin has indeed hardened into a good crusty shell. Which for some odd reason makes me think of Easter candy, but having no idea what Easter candy has a thick crusty shell, I'm afraid I'm at a loss for why.
OKAY, UPDATE: Bryan's been reading this here bloggy blog, evidently:
"Whether you agree with this war or not, we're committed to it now..."All right, all right. I admit it: that statement is not an absolute, and it could be horribly misapplied. Bryan's right for calling me on this.Though it doesn't seem to apply here and hopefully won't, don't be
blinded by statements like this.Think: "Vietnam"
BUT, I should say, as I've said before, I do think we're doing the right thing here. Of course we shouldn't doggedly stick to our guns regardless of how things play out (that would be really frickin' foolish). But here's the point: If you know what you're doing is right, you've got to stick to the plan and not lose your resolve. I think, as a culture, we're still too far on the Emotional side of the spectrum. Which isn't to say that the pendulum isn't swinging back in the right direction, but it does make me concerned that we're going to get weak-kneed when we don't execute this campaign flawlessly.
Posted by Matt at March 25, 2003 1:22 AM
