Good News: Some Causes of the Recent Rise in Depression are Obvious

War and Media

Published: 2023-09-28

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Introduction

On the morning of 2023-09-28 between 07:30 and 08:30 AEST after having set a loaf of bread in the oven to bake I took to the news with coffee and mobile. Following the local national government news agency's reporting on a mixture of local political, US narratives and local human interest, it was time to glance to the international. news.antiwar.com was the first cab off the rank and provided the no nonsense headlines for which I have praised Dave DeCamp repeatedly.

Armed with my translation skills this hit me pretty hard. I've annotated the introductory graphic as a condensate of my translations. Well, “screw this” said my emotional balance centre. Gimme some positive to offset this barrage of bullshit. goodnewsnetwork.com came up on the non-Alphabet Inc. search engine. Their headlines scanned with a finger flick or three restored some equanimity.

By 'War' in the subtitle I mean the financial consequences of the US attempting to maintain its hegemony. The mechanisms used by the ideologues attempting to do this are many. One was recently confirmed by an article from Sy Hersh which crossed my radar at MoonOfAlabama. The link leads to the first comment, scroll up for the article. So well did the comment captured my hopeful reaction to the story for those not trapped in the, to borrow a phrase from Caitlin Johnstone, US narrative matrix, that I had to use it.

This article was begging to be written, but the internal editor declared 'insufficient evidence and context' with 'show the latest shite from the MSM too'. This bore the CNN image included as part of the article title graphic.

The shown CNN lead article focuses the reader's mind on the current US political war which will continued to be waged for the next 13 months. This should be a warning to all MSM consumers of how much vituperous vitriol will be spewed into their eagerly receptive minds during the period. But, this is all okay because Trump is a con-man and he's getting his comeuppance. Or, one hates these Democratic 'woke' ideologues, support Trump, or anyone that will call them out as the human rights wielding arms of the CIA that 'Russiagate' proved them to be; the current face of the neo-con shits who brought us all 20 years of the Global War of Terror.

If, however, one is not able to vote in this US election, which occurs after the unacceptable candidates have been winnowed, one sees the headline as a mask over others which expose the financial corruption of the Biden/Clinton cabal and understand that the whole thing is indicative of the endemic corruption embedded in the imperial forces behind the US two-faced Uniparty.

The current physical war between the US and Russia in Ukraine has, like all wars, a financial component. The people who are meant to profit, the arms manufacturers, those who invest in them and the investment banks which can buy Ukrainian assets devalued by the war, are profiting as intended. Meanwhile a generation of young Ukrainians have already died. The financial consequences are falling, as in every war, on the working class. In this case, outside of Ukraine, the impact falls on the US working class, as will always be the case when 50% of the US discretionary budget is spent on feeding their military and their contractors. In Europe, the working class are being impacted by inflation and unemployment which the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines by the US significantly contributed towards. Hersh gives us the expected political motive; continued US hegemony over Europe with the flow on effect of funding the US fossil-fuel faction too. AKA war profits are being spread across the industrial, imperial loyalists.

Depression

I was reminded of a headline from last week's "Week in Review". Greenwald's System Update program's title included "Gabor Maté on Explosion of Antidepressants".

Apart from the financial squeeze, I that engaging in reading 'news' or failing to manage the impact of this common practice is another cause of the increase in depression of which Gabor speaks.

If one is armed with a translation mechanism, reading the news, either the accurate news from Antiwar, or the narrative shit from the MSM, both lead to the same understanding that we are ruled by a bunch of sociopaths or psychopaths depending on how far distant from reality their lust for power has driven them. The question becomes if one knows this and continues to feed the habit of news reading, how does one maintain some equanimity?

A background question would be, if one wants to stay up to date with the news, why? What benefit does the reading provide apart maintaining the useful skill and from being able to use knowledge of the ‘news’ as a means of ‘meaningful’ interaction with other humans? Which news sources support this last objective and does one really want to read them? How important is this?

If one is not inclined to kick one's habit of news consumption would some good news, to go down with the cod liver oil and razor blades, assist? It does for me. Mileage may vary.

There is a parallel treatment plan too, to read analysis by knowledgeable and compassionate authors. A few good examples would be Vijay Prashad, Patrick Lawrence and Chris Hedges. They are aware of the horror of it all and have been writing about this nightmare for years, usually decades. Their understandings and language tend to be more nuanced which softens the continuous blows being delivered. Their understanding of how power is derived, wielded and for which short-sighted purposes currently directed can be integrated with one’s own evolving sense.

One can make a treatment plan on news consumption for one’s self! I, as of today, am committing to adding a little more 'good news' to my diet of national and international current affairs reporting. Best of luck to you, whatever you choose.

Bon voyage!

Sources

CNN, 2023-09-28

Antiwar News, 2023-09-08

Good News Network, 2023-09-28

Hersh Reveals U.S. Motive For Destruction Of Nord Stream Pipelines, b., MoonOfAlabama, 2023-09-06

Week in Review: 2023, week 38, YesXorNo, 2023-09-25

Ukraine’s Reconstruction in BlackRock’s Hands & Gabor Maté on Explosion of Antidepressants, Greenwald interviews Gabor Maté, System Update, 2023-09-15

Culture

Keep The Customer Satisfied, Simon & Garfunkel (from their 1970 album Bridge over Troubled Water) , Universal Music, uploaded 2012-02-17

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