The Antidote to the Mean World Syndrome

Keith Haring (Luna Luna)

I know several people who have been directly impacted by the ongoing firestorm in Los Angeles, four of whom have lost their homes. 

I've been on a strict news break for the past few months. I didn't learn about the disaster until people I know told me about it. The only stories I've heard are from the perspective of people who have experienced it. These people have all been fortunate enough to have not been physically harmed, to have escaped with their loved ones, their pets, and a handful of their most important keepsakes. They are sad, of course, but also, all of them, have expressed gratitude. "It's just stuff," they've said. They've talked more about the people who have it worse than they do than they have themselves, urging me to contribute to this or that effort to provide food, clothing, and shelter for those who need it. "We'll be okay," they've said from where they are living out of a suitcase. Even as they've lost their homes, they are expressing compassion for those who have lost even more or who were not as well prepared.

I don't know what people on the news are saying. I'm sure there have been interviews with people expressing sentiments similar to my friends, but I also have no doubt that fingers are being pointed, that ideologues have taken up microphones to blame other ideologues, that people from one state are gloating about what happened in another state. I know this because I've watched the news for most of my adult life.

George Gerbner, a professor, author, media critic, and founder of what's called cultivation theory, spent his career studying how the news, and particularly television news, impacts our perception of society. He coined the term "mean world syndrome," a phrase he used to describe the fact that people who watch large amounts of television are more likely to perceive the world as a dangerous and frightening place. They tend to be more cynical, more misanthropic, and more pessimistic than those who watch less. They believe that their fellow humans are more selfish and self-centered than they really are. They believe that individuals are helpless to better the world and are far more likely to be stressed and depressed. Is it any surprise that we've become so radically anti-social?

In just a few months of avoiding the news, I've seen a change in my own perceptions of the world. For one thing, I'm a much better listener. My mind still wants to know what's going on in the world, but without the news, I have to count on people I know. Yes, many of them know what they know through the news, but it comes to me filtered through the perspective of actual human beings in my life and that makes a difference. Actual humans, as opposed to the talking heads motivated by ratings, are more inclined to deliver "the news" with a catch in their throat, with tears in their eyes, and, like with my friends who have lost their homes, gratitude and compassion.

Gratitude and compassion are the antidotes to "mean world syndrome." When I reflect on my wonderful life amidst young humans, I can't tell you how often I've seen a child fall and another help them get back up. I'll never forget one boy who was having a difficult day who sat on a swing shouting "Help! Help!" His classmates swarmed to him, like anti-bodies to a wound. He wanted them to push him, but it was clear that he also wanted more than that, and the other children responded the way human beings always have, by helping him. I think of how excited and grateful a child can be over the smallest thing -- a special rock, a scent, a song.

This is who we are.

I hold a degree in journalism. "The news," by definition, is something out-of-the-ordinary. Dog biting man is not news. Man biting dog is. The "mean" things, the tragedies, the hate, the violence, the anger, these things are in the aberrations. We don't see much gratitude and compassion on the news because it's found everywhere the news is not. 

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