Summer Musicals and Tips for Oils

From comedian & Writer Paul Kerensa:

I sit down to write a Pause For Thought a couple of days before I sit here with you, Chris. And one of the things I thought to write on, was the fast-changing nature of the news. The fact that in post-Brexit Britain, we’d barely read a news headline before it was trumped – and not by Trump, but by resignations, appointments, MPs, and PMs.

Daily printed newspapers didn’t stand a chance. Social media took over as the primary news source – which is worrying, given that our feeds don’t always give us the full story – not objective news, but algorithm-selected articles we’re most likely to sympathise with, given what we’ve liked or shared before.

Only it’s not just post-Brexit Britain that’s moving the news on fast Another day, another headline, or three, telling of attacks in France, in Germany, in a Florida nightclub, in France again, in Germany again, in another Florida nightclub. Yesterday barely two hundred miles from this studio, a Normandy priest was murdered during mass.

At any crime scene, barriers go up. My worry is, that our barriers do not come down so easily after. The news stories are too easily simplified into us versus them, and both media and social media feed this problem. It’s understandable – it’s human nature, to protect ourselves and our families - those like us. But I’ve seen friends on social media sharing thoughts and articles that tar all with the same brush, that are skewed against refugees or Muslims, ignoring the contributions and indeed innocence of millions. I was tempted to remind them that Islam’s given civilisation universities, countless medical advancements, coffee, chemistry… but in many ways that’s irrelevant, just window dressing. The nub of it is that teaching: “Love your neighbour as yourself”, taught Jesus. “And who is my neighbour?” The hated Samaritan, the loathed warring nation, the enemy from down the road or oceans away.

We’re moving away from Europe politically, yet geography isn’t moved so easily. But forget politics and forget geography – our neighbours can be a world away, even an ideology away. It’s difficult to love ‘the other’, when the news is increasingly urging us to build those barriers. But love we must, because ultimately, it’s not us versus them, it’s just us.