You can’t be serious
This week marked the centenary of the start of World War I. From Belgium to Serbia, political, military and religious leaders joined members of veterans’ associations in examining the battles that put an end to the German, Habsburg, Ottoman and Russian empires and transformed Europe’s political landscape.
Poignantly, as ceremonies were being held to commemorate the dead of a hundred years ago, Israel and the Palestinian factions, including Gaza’s ruling Islamist Hamas movement, accepted an Egyptian proposal to cease fighting for at least three days.
Amid these headlines, another report emerged: Orlando Bloom and Justin Bieber engaged in fisticuffs over Miranda Kerr. The scandal, a story that offsets with enthusiasm what it lacks in gravitas, may not have been the news we wanted. But given the grim lineup of stories we have had to slog through, perhaps it was exactly the news we needed. Or I needed, as it were.
Less mental effort
I happen to work in a digital newsroom, one that deems itself to be the gold standard in global news and analysis. Formality and restraint are par for the course. At the end of an eight-hour day, liberated from the tyranny of so-called serious journalism, I want to go with the flow and not be too much in my head.
So instead of thinking of Taiwanese pension funds, I ponder the desirability of a pair of Golden Goose trainers I spotted in Monocle. In place of the BBC’s Hardtalk, I catch up on VH1’s Candidly Nicole. The less mental effort a form of entertainment requires, the more I gravitate towards it.
The ones in my innermost circle seem to be equipped with the same reflexes. The last thing they want on top of their frightfully adult responsibilities — as portfolio managers, urban planners, doctors — is depressing external stimuli at home. The TV shows they tend to prefer verge on the mindless. Game of Thrones and Orange Is The New Black are too demanding and, more important, not pretty enough.
In ancient Roman times, this superficial means of appeasement came to be known metonymically as panem et circenses, or “bread and circuses.” The poet Juvenal used the phrase to denounce the scheme by which politicians used cheap food and entertainment to prevent citizens from focusing on serious matters. Escapism today, however, is a normal part of a healthy existence.
‘Who cares?’
Reading through comments underneath any entertainment-related post — always a positive experience — I am amazed at those who continue to question the significance of such stories. The refrain is the same: It’s either “Who cares?” or “With so much going on in the world, you choose to write about this?” It’s as if the human race is supposed to subsist solely on news about wars, disease and death or programs that allege to be above it all.
If it weren’t for fluff, for breathless accounts of Chris Pratt’s weight loss or photos of one of the younger Kardashians, Kylie Jenner, in next month’s Teen Vogue, all we would be left with are articles on how the outbreak of Ebola that began in west Africa is sapping Liberia’s economic recovery, or that Italy has fallen back into recession again.
So thank you, Justin Bieber and Orlando Bloom. News of your tussle in Ibiza, and the interminable chain of events that followed, may have made the world slightly less intelligent. But oddly, it also made it a little less depressing.
* * *
ginobambino.tumblr.com
