What If The World Worked Like It Was Supposed To?

When I was growing up, I had this crazy notion that adults were reasonable, knowledgeable, and pretty much had it all figured out. As I've gotten older, I realized that that was just my parents. They may have been perfect role models, but they weren't necessarily indicative of the reality of the situation. I don't know if I thought that the change to wisdom was instant or gradual, but I did assume that most adults were like my parents, that they were capable of clear, logical thinking and patience and empathy.

Boy, oh boy, was I wrong.

Sometimes, in the morning, I will turn on the TV to watch the news. Yikes. Not only do 90% of the stories make me question humanity, but the presentation of the stories is almost as depressing.

I know that there is a huge market out there for a news station that simple reports the news. I know there are countless other people out there who want to just find out the news and not watch people analyze it. I wish there was a news channel that was like the Weather Channel. Well, there are two Weather Channels. There's the one with all the storm chasers and stuff but then there is the static channel which just constantly runs a local forecast. I wish there was a news channel like that. Couldn't there just be a feed from the AP wire or something?

Then I start to wonder if it is, in fact, at all possible to present a news story without any bias. I mean if you listen to any two people tell one story, you'll hear the difference right off. A photograph can be just as misleading.

Maybe we need a news channel that's sort of like Metacritic. At Metacritic you see all the reviews of a particular movie so you can make a judgement or take an average. Is there a news source like that? What if you combine Fox, MSNBC, CNN, and BBC? What do you end you with? Is it anything like the truth?

When I was growing up, I assumed that the people in suits on the TV were smart and telling the truth. Now I know that they are just like me, not really knowledgeable of anything much.

Wouldn't the world be amazing if politics existed like they clearly make sense in a child's eyes? The wisest person in each town becomes the mayor. The wisest person in each state becomes the governor. The wisest person in the country becomes the president. Wouldn't that be something?