Interacting with a strangers life to make you feel better.

I notice this all over the world and in my own life. It is what drives media, its what drives some lives, it could not interest me any less.

I find it extremely unusual that so much of the population of the world, albeit North America to be the worst offender, has to be involved with what is going on is someone else's life. I have some employees talking about how this hockey player dies on his motorcycle. How it is so sad so on and so on.

She is so worried about what the family will do and how they will cope. When in her own life there are greater problems that she should be worried about.

That's just one example, a few other short ones are like all of the celebrity magazines, the TV show ET to name a couple. These parts of the media flabbergast me. I cannot comprehend why these things even exist. I could care any less why Brittney the shaved her head, or why Shania left her husband.....who the fuck cares!

The way I look at it, if it is not directly affecting me or someone I care about I won't give it even 1 minute of thought in my head. Whether that will affect me as a person......unsure. What I am sure about is that at least I will be able to address things in my life, and that creates order and a stable life. That makes me a happy person.

So why does it make other people happy watching their team win the championship, watching someone from their country win in the Olympics, none of which affect their lives in any way other that making them feel like they achieved something when in reality they never got off the couch.

"My soul preached to me and showed me that I am neither more than the pigmy nor less than the giant.
Ere my soul preached to me, I looked upon humanity as two men: one weak, whom I pitied, and the other strong, whom I followed or resisted in defiance.
But now I have learned that I am as both are, and made from the same elements. My origin is their origin, my conscience is their conscience, my contention is their contention, and my pilgrimage is their pilgrimage.
If they sin, I am also a sinner. If they do well, I take pride in their well-doing. If they rise I also rise with them; if they stay inert, I share their slothfulness."
Kahlil Gibran "My Soul Preached to Me"

Such is the life of the philanthropist. I will grant you, however, that some people may take this a tad too far. Yet I live my life by this rule, and as yet have found no fault in this way of life. Perhaps the trick is to know where to draw the line. But that's just one man's opinion and I am open to the possibility of being wrong.

The media actually promotes this making it even worse. But I don't make other people's business my business.

If you spend all your time weeding other people's gardens than your own garden's produce will be choked out by weeds.

Nothing pisses me off more than realizing that I know something I have no interest in. The media rapes my mind constantly. I suppose I should quit watching television and avoid major internet websites. I have cut back, but even the chitchat of other people like you mentioned is an invasion of privacy on my brain. Learning some garbage is unavoidable.

I take some solace in adopting KGB's idea. Learning any piece of information is still information which is part of a greater whole.

Wyote, that "chitchat of other people" is what i like to call media osmosis. i've been mislead SO many times by this. I was engaged in an esoteric conversation the other day at a dinner party in my house. And due to media osmosis I was attacked by full room of flaming libertarians. It's difficult for me to grasp how mislead the public can be sometimes.

i see no problem with helping friends, but when you cross into helping people you dont even know i think this is foolish. No matter how well you think you have assessed the person your helping, you can never be sure that they actually deserve it. Now, if there was a dying man on the street i would most certainly help him. But i'm not going to send anything to some 3rd party company that tells me its going to "help" people.

I feel I need to fall back on Gibran philosophy again to get my point across:
"You often say, "'I would give, but only to the deserving.'" The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture. They give that they may live for to withhold is to perish. Surely he who is worthy to receive his days and his nights is worthy of all else from you."

It seems that people think too much when it comes to people they don't know. The problem is that charity looks at the need not the cause. If a person needs help, regardless of whether or not they deserve it, regardless of why they need help, then it we are bound by duty to help them if we can.
Likewise, if a person does well we should be happy, regardless of whether we know them or not. We are all in this together and the opportunity to help a person out of a difficult situation, or to take pride in another's accomplishments is the least we owe to each other. Though again, I admit, there may be some perverse fanatical level some people take this to, going so far as to live vicariously through celebrities and such. But we should all be a little more generous who have money and applause to give.