A Bit of Perspective

On yesterday's posts. From a Sullivan reader:

Wilkinson has highlighted something that I have been feeling for some time. American media, be it sports, gossip, celebrity, or politics, has for at least the past ten years (I am 24 so my sample size is rather small) presented each story of the day as something that is a really important, defining event. In turn, this has had the effect on me and many of my peers of the feeling that nothing is important. Which is why I have been so excited to see something truly important happen in my lifetime when Obama was elected. Now we have another truly important event, the economic crisis, and the media is still making micro events the story and missing the enormous picture. It truly is dumbfounding to me.

I've been seeing the Bale and Phelps stories all over the place, with all the requisite tut-tutting and shaking of heads. And in the meantime, the world is going down the toilet with the US leading the way, and do you think Oprah has time for that?

I've pretty much stopped reading the newspapers, even online, and the only reason I've seen the likes of Oprah or The View is that I've been trapped in waiting rooms over the past week or so. (Please don't make me remember that experience -- I've never seen such a collection of stupid as The View.)

And the reason is that there's no perspective. None. Everything's important and vital. Which means that nothing is.