I stepped out of the house this morning to walk Cassie, and I was struck by how quiet everything was.
For the past weeks and months, I—like so many other people in the country—have been glued to my smartphone following every twist and turn in this crazy election. Every day I checked the polls to see if and how they had changed.
I checked Facebook to see what my friends and followers were saying. I read article after article prognosticating who would win and what it would mean for the country and for the causes that are important to me and the people I care for.
Now, it was all over and the world was still. It was just me, Cassie, and the mountain. Dawn was breaking, and the woods, stripped of their fall foliage, stood suspended in the rising light. There was no wind, and other than a few crows cawing noisily in the woodlot, there was not a hint of a sound.
It felt to me like the aftermath of a great war. The bodies were strewn all over social media, but out here, nothing cared. The mountain didn’t care about our human election. The fields didn’t care. The trees, the crows, the deer—none of them gave a hoot.
Life, post-election, goes on. The sun rose higher in the east. Clouds scudded across the sky. The six-week-long drought continued.
We humans love our drama, our battles and conflicts. Something about the human psyche has a need to create enemies and set out to conquer them. We’ve done it for centuries. We engage that same warring spirit against nature itself, seeking to conquer it and subject it to our will.
It always has been that way and always will be. The difference today is that our modern age amplifies this human enemy-creating propensity through the constant barrage of the 24/7 media machine.
Not only do we have news and cable stations giving us the headlines with their own individual takes and biases; we also have influencers and podcasters railing at us about culture wars and the vital importance of winning them.
Politics is the crack of the modern age. The media doles it out and the masses sniff it in. There’s something energizing about getting all worked up about the latest outrage by our supposed enemy. It gets us out of bed in the morning; gets us to take up our arms in anticipation of the war that is coming.
By the end of the day, we’re exhausted with all the stress and anxiety. But fear not, because the fix will be there in the morning to get us going again.
Behind all this is money. The news media needs to stoke divisions among the populace so that it can create the drama that attracts eyeballs and, thus, advertisers. In other words, it has a vested interest in making us think that you and your neighbor are at war with each other.
The fact is, my neighbors and I aren’t at war. I think it’s safe to say that my political views are likely quite different from a lot of the folks up here where I have my house in rural Pennsylvania. But I love my neighbors. They are good to me. They watch out on my property when I’m not around. They help me with projects. They check in on me to see if I need anything.
They’re good people. I’m a good person. We’re all Americans, and we agree on a lot more than what we disagree on. And yet, the news media tells us that we are at war.
It’s nonsense. The only war is in our heads where the media has created it in order to profit from it.
I won't let them. With the election behind us, I am going on a news fast. Time is precious, and I’m not going to waste any more of it by strolling through newsfeeds seeking reasons to hate my neighbors and fellow Americans. I have too much to do. Too many stories to write, too many nature walks to make.
The true battles lie within. They are conquering the unconscious instincts and demons that destroy our relationships and our peace. That’s where I will continue to wage my wars.
That means doing my best to be kind, tolerant, and open-minded with the people I come across, and as long as they do the same with me, we can be friends, despite our differences. If not, we go out separate ways. No big deal.
In the meantime, I will no longer allow the news media to affect how I’m feeling each day. The fix is over. The addiction is over.
The first step is admitting you have a problem. I have a problem, but I’m on the road to recovery.