Well, there’s your problem!

~ Kirstyn McDermott

I’m on a quasi News Fast at the moment. Mostly cause I’m actually ker-razy busy with a bunch of stuff, but also cause it’s something I do every now and then as a kind of media detox. (Yes, I have heard that Obama is President now. I’m not that far off the grid.) I just feel happier, calmer, saner, when I tune out The News for a few weeks. Until I start to feel guilty about allowing myself not to care about what’s going on in the world, and tune back in, and then the whole damn thing starts again.  Ahem.

But I accidentally read something today which reminded me why I’m on a quasi News Fast. There’s some new self-help book just published called Changing Relationships by a Dr Malcolm Brynn. (No, you google it, I honestly can’t be arsed.) In the review-posing-as-news-story, Dr Brynn has the following to words of wisdom to impart:

If you had a very passionate first relationship and allow that feeling to become your benchmark for a relationship dynamic, it becomes inevitable that future, more adult partnerships will seem … a disappointment. The solution is clear: if you can protect yourself from intense passion in your first relationship, you will be happier in your later relationships.

Now, maybe he’s being misquoted out of context, or whatever. My leftist sensibilities insist on giving benefit of doubt here, but really, what I want to say is: Fuck you, Dr Brynn, fuck you very much.

Protect ourselves from intense passion? Protect ourselves? So, what, we can better put up with being bereft of intense passion for the rest of our lives? What you and your ilk really mean is, put up with being bereft of intense passion in all aspects of our lives, right? Put up with putting up, because that’s what happiness is all about. Being content. Not rocking the boat. Being grateful for what we have. Excising the desire for social change. Excising desire for personal change. Excising desire, full stop. Except, of course, for the desire to buy that massive plasma screen television with the surround sound home theatre system and latest must-have game console, which will make us so very, very happy.

Protect myself from intense passion?

Really. Truly. Fuck you very much.

Obviously, I need to maintain my fast just a wee bit longer.
 

Published by Kirstyn McDermott

Kirstyn McDermott is an Australian writer living in Ballarat. Mostly.

13 thoughts on “Well, there’s your problem!”

    1. I think it’s essential to do every now and then. As with everything, too much media can be very, very bad for your health. Or at least for mine.

      Somehow, the important stuff seems reach me by way of cultural osmosis anyway. Don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing. Anyway, the world seems to keep turning without my attention, which is good to know.

      Sort of.

      1. my problem is that too much media just makes me angry and depressed at the same time. there’s only so many times you can watch, ‘such and such star has arrived in our country and love it here,’ then cut to, ‘and in palestine, children were bombed,’ with the happy-sad-happy tones.

        1. You, angry and depressed? Gosh, really? 🙂

          But yes, add frustrated and cynical to the mix, and that about covers it for me as well. I wean myself down to ABC and SBS to start with, and when I still want to throw things at the screen, or feel the urge to strangle a puppy, I know it’s time to tune out for a bit.

          Until the leftist guilt kicks in. Ah, Ouborous, how I adore thee.

          1. ;p

            the depression thing is actually something i have to watch, and that stuff is one of those things that can set you off, you know?

            but outside that, what’s with the sbs news nowadays? man, it’s nearly as bad as the commerical networks.

            1. True. On SBS at least you get a little more of an idea that stuffs happens outside of Australia and the USA. A very little more. But you’re right, they are starting to whack off almost as much as the commercial networks these days. I think it was the SBS Gaza coverage to tipped it for me this time.

              Oh yeah, it actually was. The night they spent more time covering the fact that Heath Ledger won a Golden Globe or whatever the fuck it was, and would thus probably win an Oscar. Wow, like, that really puts the whole Israel/Palestine thing back into perspective!

              Plus, every motherfucker is starting to use those stupid disclaimers: warning, the following story may contain images which some viewers might find disturbing. Because, heaven forbid we might actually be disturbed by something awful and complicated and tragic, let alone have to consider why we are disturbed, let alone maybe, just possibly have to do anything about that. Fuckers. (And I include myself in that last, me who does nothing except switch off.)

              Ahem. Kirstyn needs to go lie down now.

              2. ps

                if you think watching the media is bad, try working for it… yeesh. a Bex and a good lie down all round, I reckon.

  3. There, there, I do understand. What this same exercise (give or take a stint as Media Officer for the local Greens during the last election) eventually taught me was that “news” is a genre, just like any other kind of writing/filming. A newspaper or broadcast is a template which must be filled by whatever comes to hand. Not particularly diverse facts are subject to standard treatment, producing that mix of Serious News Relevant to All Australians, followed by Interesting Australians Do Things, Interesting Americans Do Things, Strange Things Happen to Uninteresting People and Men Kick Ball Around. Which has evolved to attract the widest possible audience. It’s not an illusion: it really is the same every day.

    Of course, having come to this conclusion I now tend to not watch or read any kind of news. Or I could still be suffering from the trauma of reading every issue of the local paper for a solid year.

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