Tag Archives: Fear

Philosophy

Avoiding the Negative Media

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Avoiding the Negative Media

news boycott
Stop watching the “News.” They lie.

It was about four years ago that I had had enough. No matter what was happening globally, it seemed the media had to spend its time spreading fear, unhappiness or promoting programs on their network of stations that even further spread fear and unhappiness.  Enough was enough, and I tentatively started my own personal news boycott to avoid the negative media and their effects on me.

The news boycott is for all national news shows no matter what time they are on because they are focused on the most negative aspects of life. You miss nothing because the news cycle is, all the same, continually telling you how to feel, who to trust and who to dislike. A tragedy of some kind occurs, and they will milk it as long as possible. Gossip is close enough to the news.  Skipping this daily barrage of negativity, you would think that I would not be able to keep up with current events or news, but that has not been the case. With Facebook, Twitter, and the radio, no major news event has gone by without me knowing almost immediately. What I got to miss was all of the wallowings in anger, gossip, ridicule, and fear-mongering that the national negative media pours onto every “news story” they cover.

A great example would be the theater shootings that took place in 2012. I heard about it, though it was awful, felt sympathy for the victims, and understood that this guy (the shooter) was obviously disturbed. “Normal” people don’t do things like that.

What I didn’t do is wallow in it. The national negative media tried to dissect the perpetrator’s life and try to understand why he would do such a thing. Talking to everyone from classmates in college and kids he went to high school with.  I only know this by what others have told me, so I can’t report any first-hand knowledge of these interviews. I know that my life has been much more positive without that negative media machine spouting their “news.”

Pay Attention to the Positive ignore the Negative Media.

Every day there are positive stories of people doing good deeds and helping others live more positively. However, these stories do not even gain a mention in the vicious negative news cycle.  There are, in fact, many more good people than bad in the world. More good things are happening than bad.  There is just no money in reporting that things are great and wonderful.  Only partial blame belongs to the media because they just provide what the market will tune in to see.  A celebrity dies, nude pictures of celebrities, the public figure takes a fall, murder, terrorism are all topics that draw you in, and you watch incessantly.  So until we all stop watching, there is not going to be any significant change.

Never Been More Sure of News Boycott

Since the beginning of mass media, the practice of propaganda has been developed to control public opinion. The national media has become very skilled in telling you what to think, who to trust and who to hate. Whenever the world is split into us against them mentality, odds are, you are being manipulated.

In this election season, I have never been surer that my news boycott has become permanent as the silly election season moves into high gear. There is an inundation of false, negative, idiotic campaign ads that do little to inform but much to scare or frighten. We can sum them up into two categories.   One is that the Republicans will ruin our country if they are elected president.  On the other side are the Democrats, who will ruin the country if they are elected. The negative media wins either way.

A snapshot of the time that negative stories are given in the TV news cycle, from Jan. 20 to April 9, 2017. Each is designed to manipulate your thoughts, cause fear and control your thoughts.

The ads are designed to make supporters mad at the opposition and experience fear about the presidential election outcome.  Personally, both options are just two different sides of the

same coin, and we will experience party politics and business, as usual, no matter who wins.  However, if you look at the ads observed in a vacuum, they are quite humorous.  Republicans hate Democrats and each other; Democrats hate Republicans but not each other; we are all stuck in the third grade listening to the negative media.

The national news shows, I am sure, are pontificating on the positives of their candidate and spewing the fear about the opponent.  Count the number of negative sentences used in an ad designed to instill fear or fear-based thinking, and it will surprise you.  Not me because the media has shown that fear sells, sensation sells, and good deeds don’t make good copy.  Practice your own news boycott, and you will feel a lot better about the world and put a dent in ending the negative media.

If you don’t use your mind to think your own thoughts, someone else will fill it with theirs. So take a moment and look at how things really are and what can really hurt you. Believe none of what you hear and only half of what you see.

 

Poetry

Possible

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Possible

imagine-what-is-possibleby Jonathan Hilton

Lost in a flow of unfamiliar folks. Found in an instant by you.

Thinking and resigned to my fate, there is a waking up that leads me here.

I don’t know where I’ve been for so long, now I am sure it’s time to move on.

Moving on into the abyss of the dark, scary, exciting and inevitable.

not possible to know if circumstances will improve, but moving forward is the only thing to do. It is then you will find the message with only your name, left just for you.

The loneliness of life can at times totally swallow your soul, if you are not careful, there will be only a weak surface joy in life. Digging deeper with all you have will reveal the truth.

anything is possibleTry not to fear this change, and fight the instincts to run for safety, move boldly.

Strength of nerve will bring understanding so move boldly without hesitation.

There is no limit on your path, your potential is infinite, unless you choose to struggle.

All barriers before you fall, loneliness leaves, contentment grows, as it should.

When your beliefs are working with our dreams, this is a time in your life when …..

ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE!

 

Questions

The Price of Love

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If you could experience true love for only a week of your life would it be worth it?

by Jonathan Hilton Day 36

love worth livingSometimes life seems to be full of things that are dichotomous to experience. Both bitter and sweet to the senses and often times we have to make a decision if they are worth it or not.

 Love is one of these experience in life. There are so many positive things to it but in the end you have to wonder is it really worth it?  Wouldn’t the time be better spent developing a talent or learning to fly a kite or something?

 The answer I give in the final analysis is based on the weight of the measure of the positive power of love against the angst and pain that remain when for whatever reason love ends. That is the dilemma this question asks you to solve.

The Power of Love

There is nothing that can make you feel as good as being in love. The connection that you have with one other person which allows you to know that there is something unique and special inside of you that someone else appreciates.

love All of you flaws are overlooked for a moment and the positive ingredients that make you who you are,  seem to be enough, like shining jewels in you soul that are invisible to everyone else.

There is nothing more important than spending time with that person you love.  Hours are condensed to moments and moments are non-stop fun, interest and your heart actually hurts when you are apart.  There is a counting of the moments until you are together again.

 Someone’s love for you is very powerful and can allow you to grow and accomplish things together that apart would be impossible.  Love has the power to make you unbelievably happy and when you appreciate that you live in the moment like at no other time in your life.

The Price you Pay

There is a significant cost that you sometimes pay for love however, for no good thing comes for free or without risk.  Love is so precious that many times we start to let fear of losing your love creep in and start to destroy the positives you feel.  Jealousy is one of the major culprits.

When you are afraid of losing your love then jealousy arises. It can be based on absolutely love we deservenothing, or on something from your past or any irrational fear, but once jealousy starts to creep in, love seems to be much harder to maintain.  Envy, anger, doubt, inferiority and ego also come with this package, but the culprit is fear. I don’t think you fall out of love as much as you fall into fear.

These negative emotions cause you to lose your empathy for that person you loved and once that is gone, there is no longer any love.

Once love is lost, there is no cure for the pain that you feel other than the calming salve of time. That does not do you any good when you are alone, can’t sleep and you miss the thing that made you so happy.

There is a hole in your soul that may in time be closed or perhaps it will just sit there, neither healing or being fatal to your existence. Just bearing a constant reminder of what once was and now is gone.  Is that pain really worth it when it comes to love?  When you just want to find a way to be normal, to find your worth again. To feel that special again.

Totally Worth It

True-love-is-always-worth-love-quotesI admit freely that in my past, I had totally given up on love and the fact that it could ever provide anything but pain and anguish in the end. Yet I know that there is a hope that love will rise and those feelings will come with it.

The idea that no better way to spend a day than talking about whatever it is that the one your love is interested in.   Life is a game that was designed to be played by pairs of people to be most effective.

Love makes this possible. With the power, the craziness, the mess, the loss, the happiness, the sadness, the fear, the jealousy, the joy, the anguish, the euphoria, the pain is all worth it. I would do it for a week, if that is all I was allowed to have.

I know I am a better person for those I loved truly and carry those victories and defeats happily in my heart!  If I was only allowed that kind of love for one day it would definitely be worth it. Life would be much less if I had never had her head on my shoulder or held her hand just to feel her near me.

 The memory of the power of that relationship gives a hope to the heart that tomorrow, a love may rise again. If it doesn’t come then you will at least have the memory of the power and purity and know that the most beautiful things in life are in fact possible.

If you could experience true love for only a week of your life would it be worth it?

It would be so good to see your face at my door!

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Interests

Voting Was A Great Experience

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by Jonathan Hilton

Voting Was A Great Experience

voting in the 2012 election
Picture with my Ballot in the voting booth

There are many people today on November 7, who are disappointed with the outcome of the election, because in our country we all have the option to believe whatever we want. There are people who feel disillusioned and have hurt feelings, and conversely there are many who  are feeling like there is a brand new day ahead of them and there is a lot of hope for tomorrow based on these election results.  I do not belong to either group and I will tell you why.

The first thing that I am thankful for is that I have the right to vote, what I think is right regardless of what anyone else may think, I am able to make my own considerations about issues and make the choice for myself how I want to vote. There is no negative ad on television that can tell me I am wrong.  Neither can the obviously conservative individuals or blatantly liberal continuously posting on Facebook, the decision is all mine to do what I think is right, and that is a feeling of individual power and pride in my country that can’t be equaled anywhere else in the world.

placing my ballot into the machine
Placing my ballot into the machine, I had to get permission for someone to take this picture. I can’t imagine that could be illegal

After a long month of nothing but the worst common element of fear being broadcast by both  of our major political parties, it is quite frustrating to listen to both sides beat up the other about every conceivable issue.  I am feeling surprisingly good today, because the negativity could possibly end. Then if both sides actually worked together to solve all of the issues the country is facing, and look at the real way that things are done in Washington, then maybe the next election won’t be so polarizing.  I can always hope.  For me though, nothing can ruin the enjoyment I got from exercising my constitutional right, voting the way my conscience dictated.  There is no mention of political candidates or parties, because the choice of who I voted for is my business and nobody else’s.

The one issue that I was happy to see passed in the great State of Maine is Question #1 and now same sex marriage is now legal, and there is just a little less discrimination in the world.  This was a question of human rights and discrimination. Nobody is going to be compelled to enter into same sex relationships, nobody’s religious beliefs are going to be questioned, churches are not going to be required to change their doctrine, in fact the world will move around the sun much as it has throughout history, there just won’t be discrimination against same sex couples in the State of Maine.  More freedom can only be a good thing.

On this Wednesday, November 7, 2012 the sun has risen and it will more than likely set, even though the election didn’t go the way some wanted and did go the way some others have delighted in.  Every person in the country has the right to love their families, enjoy their work, look forward to the future, and to be happy regardless of who is going to be president for the next four years.  Everyone had a chance to participate, talk about and argue over the issues in public, and there were no arrests for thinking differently.  It is a great country still, we have survived world wars, depressions, civil wars and foreign attacks and still we are here.  There have been both extreme liberals and conservatives in the White House and still our country is a great place to live, and I will still feel the same way four years from now.

voting was awesom
The facebook wall post that is supportive of voting
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