Do you think your life would be happier if you were blissfully ignorant?

I can see why many americans don't vote and give a crap about politics and world affairs.

Following all the news in Iraq is depressing as hell.

Isn't there some philosophy quote about choosing to think or be a pig in a wallow? Seems like I heard something like that centuries ago in college.

Whenever the news gets to be a bit much, I go on a three-day news fast to unravel the nerves.

Here in the Bay Area, it is referred to as "KPFA Syndrome".

If you ain't pissed, you ain't paying attention!

What I don't know is if I would make that choice... probably not.

nt

When things get too intense I just shut down for a day and take a break from all new sources. My big break from reality is coming up in June. Will be going to Vegas for 5 day. While there I see no evil, hear no evil---but I might speak a little evil if any conservative gets in my way. I would like all of you in DU to keep a good eye on the news while I'm gone so I can catch up on it at my favorite source--DU.

I think its bad if you're unhappy and don't know why.

Like a guy having sex on the train tracks....until he dosen't hear the horn of the train and gets hit.

Or the pResident?

Becuase, frankly, you and I have very influence on what goes on at the top, and thats doubly true when it comes to world affairs.

So, I think opting out of politics is probably a rational choice for people as they see it as somehting out of their hands and as culture or institution thats more or less nonresponsive. Politics is responsive to money and organized pressure groups & voting blocs, not to individual citizens.

I'm coming around to turning off politics and political discouse.

:P

none of the shit you ignored ever came back to haunt you: you were never drafted, or a loved one died in the war, or you didn't have an SUV that suddenly became impossible to drive due to gas prices. If you didn't give a shit about the 1st Amendment or anything but pro-sports. Yea, you could just cruise along and let somebody else fight the bastards.

I could ignore bad things in a world of television reality.

Until the Shiites hit the Suni triangle with big Kurds.

180 million don't vote (includes kids). 50 million voted Bush. 230 million live in bliss and are hoping the rapture occurs in days.

I had distant relatives (now dead--my grandmother's aunt and her two daughters) who lived in Nazi Germany during World War II. When we visited them in 1967, they told us that the Nazis had such complete control over information that they, living in a small town in the eastern part of the country, thought Germany was winning the war and being greeted as liberators everywhere they went. Yes, the husband of one of the daughters was killed in action, but after all, it was a war, right? They thought this way until the spring of 1945 when they heard distant artillery fire and saw the people coming through their town fleeing the understandably vengeful Russians.

Hearing the horror stories from the people passing through town, they threw some clothes into suitcases and joined the crowd, leaving everything behind, never to return.

Living in a small town that was unlikely to be bombed, they were blissfully ignorant until May 1945, but the rude awakening came when they were faced with a choice between instant homelessness and being raped and/or killed.

No thanks. I prefer being informed.

after all they live it