The reader might save a tiny bit of money and, certainly, a great many beautiful trees, if he simply retains his day’s copy of the New York Times and re-read it every day. Subsequent daily issues may arrange the “latest news” in a different manner, and vary the nuanced manner of their recitation somewhat, however, the published news, assuredly, will be a stylized replication of its predecessor(s).
In the movie, “Groundhog Day,” a news reporter on assignment to the annual pre-spring event at Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, finds himself reliving the same day, immutably, day after day. The theme may conceivably, be a symbolic “shout out” to the many people, trapped in routine jobs they do not like and who are unable to form meaningful relationships. In this essay, we refer to the identical conceit, but as applicable to, and in doleful recognition that the daily and gloomy, World and National events, as reported, will be empirically congruent, and disappointingly, unchanging.
The television news media, like the responsible press, presents the latest current events, on an everyday basis, which, eternally, seem to consist of a replication of identical “latest” events of previous days.
Accordingly, tomorrow’s “Ground Hog” print news and media, will predictably, feature the following:
- The Covid virus has made deadly pathological advances in red States, (loyal to Trump) among those who adamantly refuse vaccination and masking
- Afghan relocation is problematic, and conditions are fraught with uncertainty and concern
- Global warming has already resulted in hurricanes and rainstorms causing substantial loss of life and property; glaciers are melting, horrendous flooding has begun to erase many shorelines
- Mass shootings continue in the Nation ; the NRA virulently opposes gun regulation
- Voter interference with primary focus on black citizens continues apace in 40 State Legislatures
- Mass demonstrations of the young, continue in Hong Kong against Mainline Chinese repression
- War erupts in [pick one] Yemen, Ethiopia, Eritrea; famine and suffering continue, unabated
- Donald Trump and sycophants still cry election foul; while shamelessly, and ironically, interfering with the right to vote of Americans [especially black] citizens
- Perennial police brutality against minorities persists
- The fights over the filibuster; the “For the People Act” and the “Infrastructure Act,” are still in inconclusive debate in Congress
- A few more January 6 insurrectionists are charged with criminal trespass and insurrection
- Additional felonious crimes, committed by Donald Trump are newly uncovered by the FBI.
The list features the repetitive, familiar subjects to predictably appear in the daily press, and, as anticipated, in its future issues. We are tempted to conclude that the institution of daily newspaper, and media news reporting, may endure, but certainly not the fresh existence of novel events.
We would bravely and resolutely, venture a proposed fundamental, underlying basic cause for the groundhog nature of our repetitive news reports; or, stated otherwise, for the repetitive, round-robin, eternal reprise of identically, depressive news events. We are confident as to our opinion, regarding our attributed, fundamental, and ubiquitous cause, of such eternally repetitive events, and in that confidence, would resist any [predictable] charges of thinking reductively. Following our statement of fundamental cause, we would proffer some comments, relative to our list of eternally predictable events, as an illustrated explanation of our all-encompassing, albeit limited attribution.
In its analytical simplicity, the comprehensive, underlying cause for our Nations’ reoccurring man-made problems, in virtually every case, is as easily ascertained and diagnosed, as it is difficult to ameliorate; it is, at bottom, the chronic pandemic of “ignorance” i.e., universal lack of information and knowledge.
The widely prevailing existence of insufficient education and knowledge constitutes and reveals, an empirical failure of evolution’s ultimate anthropological design, as demonstrated by its generous grant to homo sapiens of an advanced brain. The choice of ignorance is disgraceful and an ungrateful response to, and an anthropological interference with, evolution’s evident intention, viz., to cause the ultimate development of a unique, truly sentient, higher form of life. It is our view, that the regrettable outcomes of this singularly ungrateful failure, are demonstratively and ubiquitously, seen in every catastrophic facet of mankind’s constantly recurring failures and unsatisfactory outcomes. In fairness, some solution is deservedly owed to the larger portion of mankind, who, by contrast, are in proper possession of adequate knowledge and capable of informed perception, unjustly suffering due to the ignorance of so many others, responsible for the consistent regeneration of the recurring events.
The enduring element of profound ignorance is amply illustrated by the hundreds of thousands of Americans, unwilling to take the Covid preventative measures i.e., vaccination, and masking. Their tribal-like obeisance to Donald Trump, who has neurotically, made the avoidance of such salutary, preventative procedures, a gesture of political fealty to him, congruent to his wrongful disparagement of scientific and human progress. Such ignorant cultism has been inarguably responsible for the latest resurges of hospitalization and incidents of mortality.
Ignorance, similarly, is the probative cause of denial, of the scientific world’s authoritative warnings of the mortal effects of global warming, already in unrestrained progress as empirically evidenced by huge forest fires, unseasonal weather, major hurricanes, tidal flooding, and human devastation.
Ignorance is a mandatory ingredient in bigotry and xenophobia [national and religious]. The failure to acquire the informed understanding that differences in nationality, skin color or cultural beliefs, are merely external and natural features of other fellow humans who are, and remain, members in good standing, of the species, homo sapiens; and do not pose a challenge to those, otherwise described. They are not a rationally acceptable target of neurotic undervaluation or hatred. This simple principle of human equity appears, also, to be beyond the scope of understanding of errant police officers who mistreat black Americans and deserve immediate discharge and punishment. The right-wing efforts to promote policies, designed to limit, or deny the black vote, as above stated, is an additional, bigoted and insidious, anti-democratic illustration of this perverse style of ignorance.
One can ultimately conclude, given sufficient analytical thought and objective deliberation, that the all-encompassing pathology of systemic ignorance is the singularly underlying, common, and ubiquitous basis for man-made misery. It is harmful to the rational progress of human life and, like the Medieval Black Plague, is similarly ominous and infectious, on a ubiquitous basis.
There is no, legally designated nor identified, “Groundhog Day,” respecting the atavistic and shameful dynamics of ignorance, which like the Black Plague, seems, with groundhog certainty, will persist in its unchanging spread of pathological metastases, causing manifold human misery and injustice, and unnaturally retarding the advancement of the human species.
-p.
plinyblogdotcom 