Eat the Skunk, Just Don’t Forget to Hold Your Nose.

When did we all get so doom-and-gloom about the world? In most western countries, cheese and an over abundance of crap food are more likely to kill you then a religious nutbag wearing a suicide vest. We’ve all heard that cliche about comparing our chances of dying in a terrorist attack versus driving, or digging around the toaster with a knife to free that burnt piece of toast (don’t do it! It will kill you). In fact, over the last twenty or so years, the number of crimes have been steadily decreasing as a percentage of the population.

I forgot to mention champagne corks — those silent killers. Flying champagne corks kill on average 24 people a year.

Next time you watch the news, see how much crime is reported from areas outside your own. News feeds on negativity. It’s why you might see a fluff piece about a stuck cat being rescued from a drain, or a pod of dolpins swimming in the bay, but only rarely, as an aside. The fuel is news that shocks, saddens and terrifies us, but guess what? Terrible things are a normal course of events. I’m not spruiking that all is well and that there aren’t challenges, it’s just that there needs a buffer, some moderation around what we’re bombarded with on an hourly, and sometimes minute basis.

It’s the prevalence of media and social media commentary that has increased. Sure there are more terrorist attacks to say when Vanilla Ice first donned a pair of sneakers and pretended to all bad-ass. And there are horrrible wars, but to see the trend in world stability you only need to step back and look over the last one hundred years. The trend is down.

If it was all so bad, we wouldn’t be focused on it. Our conversation would centre around something else. We would be talking about access to clean water, to food and shelter, outbreaks of cholera and shortages of medicine. But we’re not. We’re talking about the Kardashians, the Dow Jones and the price of oil, and how politics has degenerated to the level of a break dance fight on a piece of weather cardboard in an alley.

So eat the news the media outlets feed you, just don’t forget to hold your nose swallowing. And remembr to duck and cover at this year’s New Year’s Eve party. You never know when the next cork will strike.

C.Hubbard