I slept ok last night. I guess resolved uncertainty is conducive to better sleep.

In many ways, the election result is a windfall for the click-harvesting, eyeball-tracking media/advertising industrial complex. Four years of destruction, broken norms, shocking grift, incompetence, stupidity, collusion and decline are a rich source of click-bait.

So if we want to maintain our mental health, we're going to have to learn to tune most of this stuff out.

Yes, things are going to get worse. But do we need to know all of it, all the time? Especially when there's very little we can do about it?

I don't think so.

I have a predilection, maybe an addiction, to doom-scrolling, and I know it's not healthy.

How does being informed about the relentless degradation of our government and institutions change anything?

I have to believe they're actually looking forward to the first mass protests so they can deploy the National Guard and maybe shoot a few people. Establish expectations.

Anyway, in a reality where everything is going to be more challenging, looking after our own health is going to be very important, especially our mental health. It's attractive, perhaps, to have the notion that "I shall bear witness! I will not look away!" But I think "bearing witness" in this environment is like vowing to run an ultra-marathon, when maybe the most you've ever done before is a neighborhood 5K.

It'll kill ya.

So I'm going to try to read more books, take more walks, ride my bike more, and lift weights. Time spent doing that is time away from the news (except in the gym, alas),and an investment in myself and in a stronger array of personal resilience resources.

I'm not going to look away. But I'm not wasting my time staring into the abyss either.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:38 Thursday, 7 November 2024