The media gangs up on us, drowning us in news of destruction and catastrophe. It leaves us depressed and anxious, producing myriad fears of what could happen. We are left feeling we can do little beyond entreating, “God help us.” Readers may be surprised to learn that I am not among those who follow TV news from moment to moment. In fact, it is normally coincidence that finds me in front of TV news at all. Why, you may wonder, do I have this approach?
I have found that whatever I watch on the news haunts me for the rest of the day. It settles in my subconscious so that when I meet my brooding darkness, I find that it is due to those moments when I was connected to the world’s suffering. Once I am connected to that suffering, feelings of uselessness and hopelessness take hold of me since there is nothing I can do to help. And then of course, there is the fear that the misfortune which has happened to others may happen to me. Indeed, I might even be struck by guilt that nothing has happened to me while my fellow humans suffer so terribly. All this makes me stop and think, stop and compare these contradictions and differences between human beings. One cannot blame God and call it “divine injustice”. God forbid! The injustice is produced by the hands of man!
It is man’s inabilities and shortcomings in applying God’s laws that cause so much trouble and suffering. For example, there is the matter of social responsibility and cooperation our religion instructs us to implement. If only it were applied, there would not be such deprivation in the world. Instead there is a notion of immortality on earth and frantic hoarding of worldly wealth as if any of us will take anything with us. I do not mean that one must give up everything but that there must at least be some participation in things that do not always produce financial benefits because the whole purpose is to help those in need. If every capable person helped an incapable person, there would not be such a social abyss, and class differences would be far less pronounced.
As for those whose philosophy is “Why should I give to one whom God has not given to?” there is also the philosophy — “God did not give to someone so that you could be rewarded for doing so.” And if you are still not convinced, there is of course the strongest argument of all: What if the tables were turned and places were changed? God surely created us differently and placed us in different situations. At the same time, He also gave us a certain humanity from which we derive noble and humane notions and inspirations.
Now let me go back to the beginning of this article and the media. I took pity on myself and decided to avoid the screen as much as possible. I replace it with the written word by reading newspapers. At least the headlines allow me to select what I want to read or not to read. Some may criticize the written news because it is not as immediate as visual news; however, the question is what difference it makes whether I get the news almost as soon as it happens or a little while later?
This does not mean that I boycott documentaries, interviews or debates on satellite TV. I keep up with those and try to watch the ones which interest me. At the end of the day, I have usually read two newspapers — one local and one international. I also try to read two books a week or at least one. What is important is not to be glued to TV or to jump from one newspaper to another. The important thing is to comprehend what we read and to connect it to life and the widest possible variety of situations and circumstances. If we do this, we can harvest the fruits of thought, add to our imaginative powers and increase knowledge.
(Suraya Al-Shehry is a Saudi writer. She is based in Riyadh.)