It is good to note the beauty and the good in life. Wholesome and healthy for the inner person.

The key is balance. The world has both, in abundance. To remain sane, we cannot focus on just one or the other, for either to exclusion, is a distorted view of reality.

This reminds me that I have been going to post for some time about something in this vein but haven't fully gathered my thoughts on it yet.

I think we've become a society that has lost our ability to trust. We're cynical. We learned the lesson perhaps too well, and now, no longer have the ability to admire others, to look up to them, to respect people. Somewhere along the line, our leaders, from parents to presidents, have let us down and while perhaps it is a good thing to leave naivity behind, I think we've gone down the path too far leading us to a society that feels we have the right to know every single thing about someone, it's turned us into a society of gossips and drama queens.

We're so cynical that we no longer consider the opinions and feelings of others. We simply have no respect nor trust for each other.

In some ways this makes this entire forum useless. We have thousands of soliloquies and no true debate and conversation, each side convinced that they are right, and only hearing the pieces of facts that fit their opinions and views, and ignoring the rest. There is no learning, no exchange of ideas, only circular topics, again and again, around and around, never gaining ground.

I was watching CNN when a program came on asking the question, "Is your neighbor a terrorist?". I thought to myself that after 9/11, was this a good idea to make people even more scared. Being scared of your own neighbor??!!! I then realized the media would like nothing more then to have you scared and distrustful of everyone and that would include your neighbor. I turned my cable off. I see it as nothing more then propaganda and brainwashing on a mass scale. If every car accident was reported during a single day in America people would be freaking out and afraid to drive. The world is scary but TV is a force multiplier making things look all gloom and doom.

The lights go out in Rome

Originally posted by Skyfloating
The interesting addition you make to this thread is in emphasizing the difference between LOCAL news and global news.

It seems to be our habit to see more evil and badness somewhere far away or in foreign countries.

Yes, because the farther away it is, the bigger it has to be as a story to make the media. And in the news business, bigger usually mans badder.

To the Honourable Member for Atlanta: how often have these urban horrors you list here actually affected your own life - not your state of mind, your life and those of your near and dear ones? And why do you think a world that is transformed out of recognition from the one in which you grew up is automatically worse? Couldn't it just be different?

Skyfloating, if you want another pleasant surprise about Iran, try eating some of the food. The Iranians have one of the most delicate and sophisticated cuisines in the world.

"You've got to admit it's getting better, getting better all the time"

And I think ATS is part of the getting betterness...information for the masses, by the masses!

Curiosity & Awareness Driven vs. Hate-Driven

Despite the heaviness of mood sometimes encountered here, I come to ATS because there is a high level of awareness of life`s and worlds events. So much so that everything and anything is examined without Taboo.

This place is also an exercise to learn to discern between curiosity & awareness driven content and hate/fear driven content. How many threads are there that were only made to prove oneself right and prove a specific group of people wrong? And how many threads are there that exist for honest inquiry and learning? Its probably 50-50.