I Read the News Today, Oh Boy

I conducted an experiment recently. I stopped watching the news and reading newspapers (I was reading up to three papers a day) and after a few days of withdrawal (okay, I'm a news junkie), I started feeling better in many ways. I noticed a decrease in a general feeling of crankiness, I literally felt happier and I started loving my fellow drivers in Los Angeles (okay, I made that one up).

I have been a Scientologist for over 25 years and have read on the Volunteer Ministers Course L. Ron Hubbard (LRH) referring to (some of) those in the media as Merchants of Chaos. I have had some friends recommend over the years that I wean myself from the mainstream media, these Merchants of Chaos, but I didn't buy it. I was a big enough man to be able to watch or read all the death and destruction that's fit to print or show on a TV screen without it affecting me. Having tried this experiment, I now see what LRH and my friends were referring to. I really can't believe (nor will I admit to my friends who bugged me about it for years) how much better I feel. Scanning my radio this morning for some good tunes, I had a temporarily relapse and stopped on the 24 hour news station. I immediately felt my anger and crankiness come back so I quickly turned to a soft-jazz station to help me calm down.

My suggestion to you is to conduct an experiment like I did - stop watching the news and reading the newspapers for a couple of weeks and see if you feel any differently. Who knows, you might even start liking your fellow drivers on the freeways.