narrative; blog; diary; perspective on past vs. current events

(First of all, as a prologue, may I say, The "economic downturn" is welcome to kiss my ass.)

NARRATIVE, NARRATIVE, NARRATIVE
What gets said about something is perhaps as important as the thing itself, maybe MORE important.

The narrative, the story-line, the thing that people believe.
Or the things that people KNOW, once perspective is gained and you can look back on it.

Those being two different things.

Narrative as propaganda, on the one hand;
on the other hand -- narrative as events seen in perspective, i.e., hindsight being 20-20....

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I had been thinking a lot lately about something I realized about myself: I enjoy reading history, particularly recent history, within my lifetime, but also earlier....whereas, News And Current Events, I often have limited capacity to take in; just don't want it.

Too negative, too horrifying, too depressing, too skewed, too much bullshit. (May we say that on the internet?)

I find myself unplugging from the health care debate; only listen / read in very small doses -- but I want to consider assassination of Pres. Kennedy in conjunction with U.S. accelerating involvement in Vietnam conflict.

I guess because those issues are in the past, so they're somewhat laid to rest. I can listen, learn, read, study, and consider and analyze and use what I learn to apply perspective, precedent, and context to current events -- about which I still only want to hear a little bit.

Am I weird? It's probably some kind of "disorder."
For which I will NOT be taking medication.
Another topic for another day -- surely I'm not the only person who believes Americans are over-medicated these days.

Back to narrative.

Interesting story in New York Times "Talking Business" section:

> > > > > In January 1931, a lawyer named Benjamin Roth, 38 years old, solidly Republican, a solo practitioner in Youngstown, Ohio, decided to start a diary. Realizing that he was "living through an historic thing that will long be remembered"...he wanted to keep a record for posterity.

...What particularly struck me was watching Mr. Roth, in his diaries, grope from day to day, and year to year, searching for an answer that wouldn't be clear until long afterward. He's like the proverbial blind man who feels an elephant's trunk and thinks elephants look like a rope. Not unlike the way we are today, as we grope our way through our own financial crisis.

...When you are living through a financial crisis, all you can do is wait and see. Governments take action they hope will have the desired effect -- but who knows if they really will? It only becomes clear much later, and far too late for those of us living through it. < < < < <

There's the answer to my "disorder" -- I like reading about it as history better than hearing about it as news, because it's "clear" -- or at least more clear than it was.

The author of that NYTimes article is Joe Nocera.
Mr. Roth's diaries are published in book form, titled
The Great Depression: A Diary

A diary -- kind of like a blog.

-30-