everyone and thank you so much for
joining in so enthusiastically it used
to be the case that when we woke up in
the morning we would look outside and we
would see the Jew and we would listen to
birds but now of course we don’t do any
of that what do we do we turn to our
smartphones and we look at the headlines
and when it’s late at night and we’re
ready to go back into sleep we do
exactly the same thing the news book
ends our lives and if you look at the
traffic on the BBC News website some 15
million people will check that site over
four times a day during the day now what
are we looking for what is the search
what kind of information are we looking
for what do we think it’s going to
change it’s so unclear the news is
something that seeps up on us as we’re
growing up and very rarely does anyone
take us to one side and try to explain
why it’s there how its put together
people will have a shot at introducing
us to paintings people will have a shot
at telling us about theater and
literature but no one really ever stops
to systematically warn us about what
might happen when we come across this
sort of material it’s deeply puzzling
it’s full of mystery and power we’re not
quite the same people after we’ve looked
at this stuff people think that they can
relax on a Sunday by reading the
newspaper
it’s the striking idea of what might
happen this you know where nowadays I’m
surrounded by news the philosopher Hegel
said that a society becomes modern when
it swaps this for this essentially when
it stops going to church on a Sunday and
starts reading the newspaper instead we
are firmly in that age and yet though we
know about religion and what it might do
to us and we’re prepared to argue quite
facility for it or against it when it
comes to news we’re curiously cowed and
timid and passive consumers of this
information in the eighth
century when people were looking forward
to an age of more freely available
information this was the great rallying
cry of social reformers in the 18th
century when reformers looked forward to
a future with more information they
imagined that more information would be
an unambiguous good that by knowing more
we would care more we would want to do
more good and the light of Reason would
shine in previously dark places it
hasn’t quite happened that way there’s a
curious way in which even though we have
unbelievable amounts of information the
utility of that information both for the
individual and for the running of the
state is at best questionable you know
there are two ways maybe to keep a
population passive resigned despairing
accepting of whatever status quo is
given to them the first way to keep the
population down I think is the way
that’s been tried in North Korea
stop all news that’s one way but there’s
another more insidious clever away flood
the people with news give them so much
news they can’t remember what was going
on yesterday let alone in this morning I
mean who can remember here what was
happening in the news yes last week this
time last week who knows I mean it’s a
prehistory no one can remember Oh prizes
for anyone who can afterwards but
basically we’re deeply puzzled by the
torrent of information and unable to
quite make sense of this I’m very
interested in the therapeutic I look for
the therapeutic qualities that might be
available within all sorts of art forms
of jars I’ve looked at philosophy I’ve
looked at literature I’ve looked at the
world of fine art and now I’ve turned my
attention to news and the thing that I’m
arguing for is a more therapeutic kind
of news in other words a news that might
be more geared towards our inner and
also societal needs how could and use
how could the news get better in the
sense of being more focused on the
genuine requirements of its audiences
rather than the passing titillation of
its audiences or the the fear and panic
side of the of the audience how could
news become genuinely useful rather than
merely as it is now
gripping compelling but not necessarily
nutritious in many ways we certainly
know news is important how can we get it
better let me begin by taking you on a
tour through some of the issues that I
think we’re facing as the consumers of
news in every case trying to get things
to go a little better now look one of
the great puzzles of the modern age is
that there are many serious issues that
surround us this is one of the most
serious global warming climate change
the problem is you will find that if you
are running a news organization and you
put this on your front page on your home
page your viewership will drop
catastrophic ly however you will also
find that if you put this on the front
page your viewership will increase
exponentially there used to be a
distinction between important news that
would go at the front and then
unimportant but perhaps fun news that
would go at the back that hierarchy the
architecture of news has broken down and
this is a serious problem for anyone
trying to get serious ideas across to
the audience the important and the
popular should be one it’s very
important that important things are
popular right too often there’s an idea
that if you’re dealing with important
stuff doesn’t really matter how many
what kind of an audience you get because
it’s so important but the problem is in
a democracy politicians need the
population to have their attention
focused on the really important issues
and to care about them through time this
is breaking down and so the popularity
of Taylor Swift’s legs over the arctic
melt is not just a passing journalistic
problem it’s a problem for our
democracies it’s problem for our
societies a very serious problem is
going on now what do we do about this
I’m an optimistic sort of person and
part of the reason I’m optimistic is
because I look at the example of the
Catholic Church in the Renaissance the
Catholic Church were very interested in
getting people to focus on the truths of
the Gospels I don’t necessarily believe
in the truths of the Gospels but that’s
what they wanted to do and
let’s look at what they did they put up
advertisements everywhere or also known
as altar pieces and these advertisements
were designed to make the important
popular now the Catholic Church knew
that if you’ve got some important things
to say don’t rely on this fellow don’t
rely on guys with beards and big books
because no one thinks about them what
you need to do is to go and search for
the Taylor Swift of the day and
therefore you go here and you go here
and Bellini was on the case and they did
it very very well we need to take a leaf
from there but popularization which is
what this is about this is a giant work
of popularization is a very important
skill and one that serious journalists
and serious media people today neglect
at their peril it’s an absolutely
fundamental part of communication in a
democracy that is very distracted so
this is something we’re going to have to
get better at if we’re to keep the
important topics at the front of our
minds but let’s think of Bellini and
let’s try and tie those legs to the
arctic melt you know what I’m saying
now I mentioned that there’s a little
bit too much news the good news is there
isn’t so much news it’s just that news
organisations constantly tell us that
there is a plethora of information they
keep presenting things which are
actually not new at all as though
they’re brand new but actually what we
need to do as consumers of the news is
to become more alive to the fact there
are archetypes out there there are
stories that keep coming round and round
and round and they look different and
they can be polished up to look
completely new and the news loves to do
that because it gets more money from
doing that but what we need to do is
consumers is to go the other way and try
and reduce the number of stories so get
a handle on the archetypes in the book
I’ve written with this talk I identify
32 main archetypal stories that just
keep coming round and round and round
there’s very little that is ever new its
archetypal but the news dissuades us
from thinking that way because it wants
to make things completely fresh because
that’s how it’s going to make the money
so we need to get sharper at doing that
and I want to help you to do that look
there’s one story that keeps coming
around it looks very different this is
one part of the story
another part of the story and this is
another part of the story it’s the same
story but it looks like many stories
it’s not and basically what that story
is about is someone extraordinary the
king or the son of God or a singer with
it with a big audience doing something
quite ordinary putting wrestling with a
car seat or buying lettuce at Whole
Foods or giving birth in a stable so
it’s the same story it just it just
keeps coming round we need to train
ourselves and give ourselves the tools
to spot the archetypes there’s a lot
less news than we think
manoeuvre number one okay other
maneuvers there’s something else that’s
really problematic about the news
nowadays which is that we can hear
things like today in the Democratic
Republic of Congo 300 people died and
afterwards we can go make a cup of tea
and not give it another thought or we go
straight to sleep you’re a disaster news
seems to be a perfect thing you can you
can listen to the news through other
people and then go to be asleep within 5
minutes
it’s an extraordinary unbelievable
ability are we crazy
are we the nastiest people species that
could ever have been invented how come
we don’t care how come despite all the
fiber optic cables and satellites and
foreign journalists rigging their lives
in places how come what gets called
World News which is primarily disaster
based gets one from the lowest audience
figures of any kind of news imaginable
it’s to do with empathy right the news
is so focused on getting us information
hard data through any people have died
that it forgets a very important thing
trying to make us care about it and the
very important thing about caring you
cannot care about 300 people dying if
you never knew they existed if their
existence was entirely unsuspected and
it entails highly uninteresting and
abstract their deaths will seem equally
uninteresting and abstract the news
doesn’t recognize this that doesn’t
recognize this phenomenon and therefore
it parachutes us into areas of disaster
at the last moment we need to know about
the steady state of a place before its
catastrophes can come in any way to
matter to us some people say well we’re
racists and that’s obviously why we
don’t care about a democratic problem
Congo these people got different skin
color so therefore you know I we don’t
get that’s nonsense of course we could
care you know we’ll sit in the
performance of King Lear and we’ve
a guy who never even existed hundreds
and hundreds of years ago so we have
immensely rich powers of empathy but
they need to be stirred into action and
the way they’re stirred into action is
by a discipline which were want of a
better word we could call art art is the
name of the discipline designed to get
big and important ideas more powerfully
more imaginatively
into our heads in the realm of news the
art form that is predominant is
photojournalism the problem with with
photojournalism is there’s ever less of
it that news organizations will pay for
reliably if you draw any many depressed
people out there philosophers top top of
the league but right below them are
photo journalists no one loves them a
bit cause that they do their work in
people at Magnum you know in despair the
great material is not recognized it’s
very very important to have good
pictures right that helps a story to get
across what is a good picture I’m not
talking about color balance or you know
cropping etc that’s not really when it
comes down to a good picture is a bearer
of new information it doesn’t really
corroborate something that you already
knew it advances the state of knowledge
take child marriage we’ve all heard
about child marriage and those things
you know we might have read about it
this is a photo by this is incidentally
Democratic Republic of Congo a photo
that’s probably not going to help us to
cap this is something that might help us
to care it’s definitely Sinclair
Pulitzer prize-winning photographer did
a wonderful photo essay on child
marriage in Yemen one learns all sorts
of things from you know this picture
first of all you realize that it’s not
little girls getting married it’s little
old ladies these children have had
something so traumatic happen to them
that they have aged overnight seemingly
and they have a kind of poignant
pathetic sadness in their eyes and
meanwhile the men are not you know the
powerful brutes one imagines they’re
like lost children themselves so it’s a
lot more complicated there’s a lot of
information one can stare at this
picture for a long time and develop some
of the deeper feelings that a bad
picture
whatever the cropping and color balance
is all about is going to deny us so we
need good quality images and more than
that we need good quality art to get us
to care about data we can’t simply care
about data however it’s landed
given to us on it on on our plates we
need it to be properly cooked presented
seduced we need to be seduced into
caring this happens not just in areas of
the developing world you know this is
President Obama this is a dead picture
we don’t we don’t let anything about
them at the man with that we’ve seen
this a hundred times we don’t pay any
attention this picture is alive because
it’s telling us something new now we
know that Obama is a fake and can fake
things to get elected did we know that
Obama can sometimes fake things in order
to please the child of a White House
staffer who is playing spider-man not
necessarily this is new information
important information we are learning
this is photojournalism in action we
need more of it point number two moving
on many of us here are very nice if
everybody says really nice okay and
generally we trust our fellow citizens
to be nice you got two stranger you know
people at friendly right until you go on
a news website and you go what’s called
below the line and you realize a really
dark truth everybody is insane they are
completely crazy they’re vicious and
dark and cruel and unforgiving and just
angry all the time about everything what
is going on you know this is these are
some this is a an average I proposal
it’s an average article about George
Osborne in the Guardian I mean it’s
unbelievable
someone wants to sit on him and and
punch him supposed to take off his socks
and put him in his mouth I mean it just
say what is going on now look I think we
need to be prepared for this I think
it’s a little bit like journals you know
how a journal is in certain moods you
know things are going not going very
well you know you’ve got your bedroom
and you put out your journal and you
pour out your woes and you’ve got I’m
going to kill myself I hate everybody no
one understands me it’s all awful you
have good cry and the tears mingle with
the ink and then you shut the journal
and just be multiplied rascal you put
the journal away and and then you rejoin
a group life and you know hopefully no
one will ever read this because if they
did they would have a very distorted
picture it’s one moment it’s a snapshot
but let’s not dwell on it but if we get
arrested with that image we may never be
able to be seen in the same light again
and therefore it’s very important that
we don’t read people’s journals and it’s
equally important that we must never
read below the line because it’s not
really true
we need to be able to love each other
and trust one another and go out into
the world and do business and and and
and communicate with one another we
can’t do that if we take the message of
a comments seriously it’s a very there’s
a very particular pathology going on we
need to be aware of it and resist it a
lot of it is driven by hope the news
gives us hope that the world can be
better than it is and that it isn’t and
it produces enormous amounts of rage it
doesn’t help us the news doesn’t help us
with our homes
it also doesn’t of course help us with
our fear the news is always trying to
scare us about all sorts of things so we
need help with our fear and our hope now
this is another kind of story that is
very very popular this is one of the
most popular stories that ran in the
Daily Mail two years ago a huge number
of hits on this story this is a man a
father and this is his very sweet son
shortly after this picture was taken the
father took the son and his sister into
a lay-by and killed them and then killed
himself and they ended up in this sob
they were found by somebody walking
their dog dead and this was an
incredibly popular story what on earth
is going on are we crazy a we as a
species demented that we love to read
about soft which is obviously so sad and
really should be the realm of private
grief what’s going on let’s call an
Aristotle for a little bit of help here
Aristotle recognized that there is an
appetite a human appetite for very very
dark stories involving people who make
some error our prey to some passing
passion fury darkness and do something
utterly catastrophic and ruin themselves
and those around them and the name that
Aristotle gave to this phenomenon was of
course tragedy and very importantly
Aristotle believed that witnessing
tragedy was not merely a gory spectacle
was not merely some kind of
tittle-tattle or rubbernecking
it belonged to part of a civilizing
process the greatest Horrors have a role
to play in building up civilization and
that’s why the ancient Greeks believed
in taking the whole population regularly
and showing them this sort of stuff
hidup is the king which beats anything
in a Daily Mail in terms of
and I was already know how would you
headline this kind of story sex with mum
was blinding so then well but in other
words Aristotle believed that the the
disasters and misfortunes of others are
important to us why are they important
they teach us fear and pity pity for the
person who has ended up in a disastrous
catastrophic situation and the lesson is
we are all of us however much it seems
like everything’s fine with us and with
completely in command and rational all
of us are quite near the edge of
disaster all the time therefore we need
to be scared for ourselves and pitiful a
full of pity for the person who has been
pushed over the edge or the or was
pushed themselves over the edge the news
is so scared about compassion for those
who have done very bad things it’s
scared that we’ll want to open the
prison doors that it doesn’t take us to
that Aristotelian tragic cathartic
emotion so it brings us the raw material
doesn’t take us to the edge it merely
leaves us perturbed gripped knowing that
there’s something we’re searching for
and yet unable to offer us generally
redemption it’s because this is
considered as low news and serious
people in serious journalism think that
this sort of stuff is ridiculous it’s
clearly very important to us
psychologically and I believe we need to
find a way to use this material and
Sophocles and Aristotle are one
beginning of an answer there’s something
else that we absolutely adore doing when
we look at the news is taking care of
some car crashes love a good car crash
particularly there lots and lots people
dead maybe in some fog we also love we
also love when aeroplanes crash
beautiful things airbus both and then
they crash fantasy of the scale popular
with news websites what is going on are
we again sick no we’re not we’re
searching for the meaning of life the
thought of death a higher a heightened
awareness of death is one of the tools
which helps to bring the meaning of life
into focus we used to know this as a
civilization in the Middle Ages when you
were decorating your bedchamber or your
office a standard piece of decoration
was a memento mori a skull either
literal physical skull or a painting of
a skull
and this was designed to focus your mind
on the omnipresence of death not in
order to sink you into despair but in
order to remind you of what matters
I think we’re vainly searching for an
element of that when we come up against
the sudden awareness of the loss of
others in tragic accidents but again the
news is not helping us it’s not tying up
the loose ends and that’s why it’s we’re
both compelled because there is
something important and yet unresolved
and slightly with a low-level anxiety
because there’s been no catharsis okay
the other thing that the news constantly
does to us is make us scared of
everything of bird flu and swine flu and
cockroaches and strange UFOs and
Martians and any that you name it with
constantly being terrified and you know
it’s very surprising but we live with so
much terror news and use terror that it
sometimes amazing when people you know
people’s car breaks down on a country
lane and you know it’s time to go and
talk to a stranger very difficult moment
when you’re reading the news because you
know that everyone is going to be ax
murderer a pervert or a widow or a
pedophile so what do you do well you
have to go and talk and then nine times
out of ten in fact nine point nine nine
nine nine nine times out of ten it’s
absolutely fine indeed they’re really
nice because most people are really
really nice we wouldn’t have murders on
the front page if people murdered all
the time it’s deeply anomalous we forget
this very basic point the news that you
know the news headlines is a such a
distorted picture of our society we’re
constantly losing a sense of how things
really are and we we start we constantly
take the anomalous to be the normal
instead of seeing that of course it’s
only on the front page because it is so
deeply unusual the first lesson of
looking at all news sources remember
that it is not the norm that’s why it’s
there so the new swings us into terrible
fears and then occasionally it swings us
into hope particular regarding
politicians maybe this politician can
fix it the last one was useless but this
one can fix it and then also health news
health news is a repository of a kind of
utopian ideal that perhaps we can crack
death so lots of thoughts about you know
what will cure Alzheimer’s may be extra
walnuts at night or some special long
socks that you’re worn we’re on long
flights I mean what’s going to cure
kidney disease maybe it’s you know some
flowers or whatever it is it’s
suggestions of the kinds of things that
may help us what the news doesn’t do is
to accept the baseline truth which is
we’re all going to die and rather than
accepting this sober fact with dignity
like these guys used to do it gives us a
kind of hope that perhaps we can crack
it and it gives us a feeling that you
know guys in white coats are currently
just now and you know MIT or in Stanford
trying to solve the thing and if we just
get the new kind of fruit juice we’ll be
solved etc it doesn’t do as the greatest
favor which is to induct us gently and
with dignity into the base facts of our
lives it swings us from extremes of hope
to despair and leaves us anxious now
the other thing that we need to really
get a grip on is this phenomenon
celebrity now serious people are
appalled by the fact that we’re all
gripped by celebrity and they point out
the celebrities are absolutely vulgar
and gross and disgusting and they’ve
shunt the whole thing now I think it’s
very important for a society to have
celebrities we can’t do without
celebrities we need role models the idea
of a role model is fundamental all good
societies have had role models you can’t
do without them the problem is that’s
not abandoned the making of role models
to the lowest common denominator but at
the moment the serious news doesn’t care
about anointing celebrity so it abandons
this task to the lowest common common
denominator and that’s where we get this
very nice young lady there are sometimes
glimpses of how how things might be
recently Natalie Portman took her
two-year-old child to the park now going
to the park with a small child is very
boring as you all know however is also
really really important it’s really
important because their development your
development etc it’s very important it’s
very useful when a big star who could be
doing all sorts of things decides that
actually she’s going to take us onto the
park suddenly it shines the light of
glamour and we need glamour to encourage
us to do things that you know not a
pleasant to do we need a little bit of
help and there is st. Mattala helping us
set Natalie the saint of going for a
walk in the park now we used to be
surrounded by Saints Society used to be
surrounded by Saints who we would say
for this and a saint for that and they
would not just in the right direction a
well-functioning society I think is one
that has useful role models this model
has really broken down partly because
elites refused to accept the seriousness
of the job of
role-modeling look there’s something
else about the news and it happens on
the weekend mostly on the weekend
there’s this sort of idea that of
reading the news the newspapers per tick
in particular is a normal thing to do on
the weekend so you know it’s a sunny
Sunday morning the birds are chirping
and you’ll go and read the Sunday
newspaper there’s something very
dangerous that is likely to happen when
you do so there’s sometimes you know
warnings of strobe lighting when they’re
showing you images in a warning strobe
lighting what they should really be over
the Sunday papers is warning NV NV the
Sunday newspapers are the moment of most
concentrated a dose of envy that we’re
likely to receive from the news although
throughout the week it will be doing a
jolly good job of dosing us up the
reason is that we live in very mobile
societies where the possibility of
attaining amazing things is
unfortunately a little bit too close to
be put completely out of mind we know
that it’s possible for example this is a
man called Ellen Musk he’s 46 years old
two years older than me used to be great
when you’re a bit younger you can always
go well it’s almost 46 ok well that’s me
I’ve got another 12 years so I could you
know this guy found at eBay and PayPal
and he’s putting men on Mars and he’s
developed an electric car company and
and this is his wife and he’s got five
children he’s just and his was a twelve
billion dollars and we’re supposed to be
happy about this
we’re supposed really pleased we’re
suppose we’re supposed to be able to
read this sort of stuff and then go
darling shall we have lunch and just not
suffer any kind of damaging effect it’s
nonsense
this is deeply worrying now part of our
neo Christie and Heritage’s were
embarrassed about Envy
we shouldn’t be embarrassed about Envy
we should put it to use Envy is very
useful inside every envious attack there
is a clue however foggy it might be
about something that we should be trying
to achieve or attain but what we need to
do is to sit down and analyze quite
soberly and with sensitivity what is
making us anyways we should let me keep
a diary of anybody write down the names
of everyone who makes you envious
because you’ll start to see if you study
those names you’ll start to see patterns
emerging and those patterns are
a code about where you should be heading
in your life for example find look at
this man more closely so I’ve got it you
know if I try and move on from a general
envious attack towards a more sincere
focus okay what does this man really
teach me about what I want I don’t
actually want to start an electric car
company I’ve got no interest in putting
men on Mars etc my wife’s very nice we
don’t don’t need this lady so what is it
what is it really that’s that’s kind of
getting me about this man I think what
I’m envious of is his courage his
determination is ability to persuade a
lot of people of some unlikely sounding
things and carry them with him to all of
these things are really important the
news and particularly in that staple of
Sunday newspaper the interview is
hopeless about this it’s circled
people’s achievements without really
trying to pin down what might be
important it doesn’t help us with our
envy because it isn’t alive to it so
again you’re starting to get a sense of
the themes that I’m taking the news is
often presenting us with important and
interesting material and then leaving us
to work out what we might do with it
that’s why my book is called a user’s
manual how can we make use of this stuff
some of which is very important how can
we make it go better in our own lives
now look there’s something else about
the news and that is the idea that the
more serious the news outlet you go to
the less the news that they should be
providing you with should be biased in
other words the worst kind of uses read
biased news and the best kind of news is
unbiased news so the words got news is
you know Fox News or the Daily Mail or
something through biased news and at
that terrible but you go up up the scale
and of course you know in this country
right on top of it the pile is the BBC
and and this must be very good because
they just present you with the
information the facts and they’re not
trying to influence your get inside your
mind or tell you what to think or
anything like that they’re very balanced
reporting so they’ll do a feature on in
a genital mutilation so that someone is
for genital mutilation and someone is
against genital mutilation someone is
for genocide and someone’s against
genocide I’m not just your favorite
event it’s nonsense of course you need
bias the thing is you need the right
sort of bias
you don’t need crazy buyers but what we
desperately need is some guidance what
are we to make
the flurry of facts that comes at us
every day we need guidance but the news
is prey odd moments to a kind of sense
of restraint that if it were to tell us
what to think we might not be able to
say no we’d be sort of convinced by the
BBC the BBC told me the other day that
the only moment when they abandon
impartiality after much heartache and
much thinking is they’ve decided to
admit that they thought that apartheid
was a bad thing ever since then they
have not come down on any issue with any
degree of bias they should get a lot
more biased we need bys particular when
it comes something like economics you
know economic news is you know sense the
most important views and yet the way
that the economics is reported in series
outlets is so often devoid of the kind
of muscle that will enable us to make
sense of the world that we live in and
give us a sense of the options the real
options that we’re facing so there’ll be
you know very small you know issues
around you know interest rates or
currency movements or of course these
are have their place in are important
but the wider picture which is who’s
getting what and why are we doing this
where what are the options for change so
unbelievable how even at the height of
the financial crisis this kind of data
was kept out of the public mind people
at this point might say oh you a Marxist
and you were going to know there’s a
real difference between you know there’s
a real spectrum between a Marxist on the
one hand and people who support the
status quo absolutely on the other
there’s a lot of good ideas out there
about how we might make our world
slightly better slightly nicer and yet
you wouldn’t necessarily know it from
following the economic news agenda and
this leads to on the one hand in a
bottled up rage and low-level depression
and then occasionally explosions of rage
but very inarticulate ones this is the
Occupy movement people who care very
deeply know that things are wrong but
have been watching the wrong kind of
news because they have no good ideas
about what to change so a desperate
naivety and sentimentality allied with
real energy to change it’s a recipe for
disaster so after a while these guys get
hosed down by the police and it moved on
and the world doesn’t change the news is
partly responsible for creating a world
that marries up this kind of genuine
passion with ignorance and dfangs the
ability for change
very bad part of the
problem is that the news is obsessed by
bad guys and it hates systemic problems
many of the problems facing our
civilization are not the work of anyone
that you could tightly put in handcuffs
and take away right it’s the work of
people who are not necessarily evil but
misguided not necessarily you know
looking to corrupt and control but
they’ve you know lacking imagination
take the housing crisis that’s
afflicting the Southeast of England it’s
not the work of one person that you
could tightly put in prison and yet it’s
one of the most the biggest problems
it’s a messy story that journalists
don’t quite like because if you open up
the hearts of most journalists on their
heart is written Watergate they looking
for the Watergate paradigm paradigm
everywhere one person or few people a
cabal in a room somewhere doing very bad
things journalist comes along gets a
little bit of information the world
changes right most problems are much
subtler much more elusive than that and
yet the news doesn’t fill it can’t see
them through the filter look the other
thing that the news doesn’t tell us and
it’s a very basic point is that the most
important things that have happened in
the history of humanity have not
necessarily happened in the previous
half-hour we are a species with a long
history and there’s a lot of stuff that
we have forgotten and that therefore if
it came to the fore right now would be
news you know if the contents of Plato’s
Republic became properly known it would
be headline news
you know democracy not always good says
big thinker you’re amazing you know that
could be really big thinker or you know
if the truth of the Buddha were told
more explicitly this will be you know
headline news so the news is supposed to
be the most important thing in our
society right we that’s why we accorded
this almost religious reverence that’s
why there’s this sonorous music before a
bulletin that’s why we listen like
children at school assembly for the
important stuff we’ve got to make sure
that it really is the important stuff
which may mean sometimes it may
absolutely mean what happened in the
last half hour and sometimes we may need
to stretch our optics 3,000 years so we
need news organizations that are willing
to accept this and then sometimes we as
the consumers of news need to realize
that there are moments where we’ve had
enough news and we need to go somewhere
where we’re left alone with as it were
our own agenda the news is the most
wonderful tool of distraction ever
invented and the great thing about is it
it sounds so serious you know what are
you doing darling I’m just looking
News Arness in the news so important
right if you said you know what you
doing I’m just staring out the window
and sort of thinking about a moment in
my childhood get up doing the washing-up
that’s not serious right so we need to
accept that being with ourselves taking
the news from ourselves is a very
important part of what it means to be a
good citizen and a good press aeroplanes
are some of the few places left nowadays
until they put Wi-Fi everywhere be a sad
day but for the moment we can still find
room moments for reflection on a long
flight and the thing about you know room
for reflections we start to notice all
sorts of things we’re not alone on the
planet there are other things on the
planet and they’ve got really different
agenda and this guy doesn’t care about
all sorts of things that you think are
really important he doesn’t know that
it’s the Sochi Olympics he doesn’t know
about you know Nick Clegg and David
Cameron and Scotia nationalism and it’s
just important to remind us of the
existence of these very small creatures
talking of small creatures there are too
small creatures in this room that I
elected with special thanks to they’re
my children who they’re not the size of
this bird by any means they’re seven and
nine they’re deer creatures and they
daily remind me that there are
priorities which have nothing to do with
the news agenda and I’m very grateful
for them for coming here for listening
today I know that it’s a bit of a ball
for them but they are a reminder they’re
a reminder of a very important balancing
act psychological balancing act which
we’re finding it ever harder to do look
by training I’m a philosopher and
philosophers think that they know it all
and that they’ve got very important
truths in hand the problem is no one’s
really listening the average worker
philosophy a friend of mine told me the
other day the I could forever average
academic work of philosophy is read by
300 people
right that’s 300 people and yet this is
where to be really important truth
the Daily Mail website has 40 million
hits a day 40 so you know you’ve got 340
million that is the world that we’re
dealing with what this one’s supposed to
do so one the obvious option is to
despair get very very sad but I and the
school of life we don’t believe in
despair with very very optimistic people
so the other day the school of life and
I we came up with a new project it’s
funded by the school
and what we’ve done is to rewrite the
mail online and every day we look at all
the stories the mail looks at you know
the murders the suicides the incest the
celebrity stories etc and we caption
them differently though we caption them
with a view to philosophical justice
compassion kindness gentleness etc so
these are the what I introduce you to
the philosophers male you could look at
at website philosophers mail.com and you
look at we’ve had a great start please
come and visit us it’s a sort of project
that we loved doing at the school of
life so would you end it there thank you very much
joining in so enthusiastically it used
to be the case that when we woke up in
the morning we would look outside and we
would see the Jew and we would listen to
birds but now of course we don’t do any
of that what do we do we turn to our
smartphones and we look at the headlines
and when it’s late at night and we’re
ready to go back into sleep we do
exactly the same thing the news book
ends our lives and if you look at the
traffic on the BBC News website some 15
million people will check that site over
four times a day during the day now what
are we looking for what is the search
what kind of information are we looking
for what do we think it’s going to
change it’s so unclear the news is
something that seeps up on us as we’re
growing up and very rarely does anyone
take us to one side and try to explain
why it’s there how its put together
people will have a shot at introducing
us to paintings people will have a shot
at telling us about theater and
literature but no one really ever stops
to systematically warn us about what
might happen when we come across this
sort of material it’s deeply puzzling
it’s full of mystery and power we’re not
quite the same people after we’ve looked
at this stuff people think that they can
relax on a Sunday by reading the
newspaper
it’s the striking idea of what might
happen this you know where nowadays I’m
surrounded by news the philosopher Hegel
said that a society becomes modern when
it swaps this for this essentially when
it stops going to church on a Sunday and
starts reading the newspaper instead we
are firmly in that age and yet though we
know about religion and what it might do
to us and we’re prepared to argue quite
facility for it or against it when it
comes to news we’re curiously cowed and
timid and passive consumers of this
information in the eighth
century when people were looking forward
to an age of more freely available
information this was the great rallying
cry of social reformers in the 18th
century when reformers looked forward to
a future with more information they
imagined that more information would be
an unambiguous good that by knowing more
we would care more we would want to do
more good and the light of Reason would
shine in previously dark places it
hasn’t quite happened that way there’s a
curious way in which even though we have
unbelievable amounts of information the
utility of that information both for the
individual and for the running of the
state is at best questionable you know
there are two ways maybe to keep a
population passive resigned despairing
accepting of whatever status quo is
given to them the first way to keep the
population down I think is the way
that’s been tried in North Korea
stop all news that’s one way but there’s
another more insidious clever away flood
the people with news give them so much
news they can’t remember what was going
on yesterday let alone in this morning I
mean who can remember here what was
happening in the news yes last week this
time last week who knows I mean it’s a
prehistory no one can remember Oh prizes
for anyone who can afterwards but
basically we’re deeply puzzled by the
torrent of information and unable to
quite make sense of this I’m very
interested in the therapeutic I look for
the therapeutic qualities that might be
available within all sorts of art forms
of jars I’ve looked at philosophy I’ve
looked at literature I’ve looked at the
world of fine art and now I’ve turned my
attention to news and the thing that I’m
arguing for is a more therapeutic kind
of news in other words a news that might
be more geared towards our inner and
also societal needs how could and use
how could the news get better in the
sense of being more focused on the
genuine requirements of its audiences
rather than the passing titillation of
its audiences or the the fear and panic
side of the of the audience how could
news become genuinely useful rather than
merely as it is now
gripping compelling but not necessarily
nutritious in many ways we certainly
know news is important how can we get it
better let me begin by taking you on a
tour through some of the issues that I
think we’re facing as the consumers of
news in every case trying to get things
to go a little better now look one of
the great puzzles of the modern age is
that there are many serious issues that
surround us this is one of the most
serious global warming climate change
the problem is you will find that if you
are running a news organization and you
put this on your front page on your home
page your viewership will drop
catastrophic ly however you will also
find that if you put this on the front
page your viewership will increase
exponentially there used to be a
distinction between important news that
would go at the front and then
unimportant but perhaps fun news that
would go at the back that hierarchy the
architecture of news has broken down and
this is a serious problem for anyone
trying to get serious ideas across to
the audience the important and the
popular should be one it’s very
important that important things are
popular right too often there’s an idea
that if you’re dealing with important
stuff doesn’t really matter how many
what kind of an audience you get because
it’s so important but the problem is in
a democracy politicians need the
population to have their attention
focused on the really important issues
and to care about them through time this
is breaking down and so the popularity
of Taylor Swift’s legs over the arctic
melt is not just a passing journalistic
problem it’s a problem for our
democracies it’s problem for our
societies a very serious problem is
going on now what do we do about this
I’m an optimistic sort of person and
part of the reason I’m optimistic is
because I look at the example of the
Catholic Church in the Renaissance the
Catholic Church were very interested in
getting people to focus on the truths of
the Gospels I don’t necessarily believe
in the truths of the Gospels but that’s
what they wanted to do and
let’s look at what they did they put up
advertisements everywhere or also known
as altar pieces and these advertisements
were designed to make the important
popular now the Catholic Church knew
that if you’ve got some important things
to say don’t rely on this fellow don’t
rely on guys with beards and big books
because no one thinks about them what
you need to do is to go and search for
the Taylor Swift of the day and
therefore you go here and you go here
and Bellini was on the case and they did
it very very well we need to take a leaf
from there but popularization which is
what this is about this is a giant work
of popularization is a very important
skill and one that serious journalists
and serious media people today neglect
at their peril it’s an absolutely
fundamental part of communication in a
democracy that is very distracted so
this is something we’re going to have to
get better at if we’re to keep the
important topics at the front of our
minds but let’s think of Bellini and
let’s try and tie those legs to the
arctic melt you know what I’m saying
now I mentioned that there’s a little
bit too much news the good news is there
isn’t so much news it’s just that news
organisations constantly tell us that
there is a plethora of information they
keep presenting things which are
actually not new at all as though
they’re brand new but actually what we
need to do as consumers of the news is
to become more alive to the fact there
are archetypes out there there are
stories that keep coming round and round
and round and they look different and
they can be polished up to look
completely new and the news loves to do
that because it gets more money from
doing that but what we need to do is
consumers is to go the other way and try
and reduce the number of stories so get
a handle on the archetypes in the book
I’ve written with this talk I identify
32 main archetypal stories that just
keep coming round and round and round
there’s very little that is ever new its
archetypal but the news dissuades us
from thinking that way because it wants
to make things completely fresh because
that’s how it’s going to make the money
so we need to get sharper at doing that
and I want to help you to do that look
there’s one story that keeps coming
around it looks very different this is
one part of the story
another part of the story and this is
another part of the story it’s the same
story but it looks like many stories
it’s not and basically what that story
is about is someone extraordinary the
king or the son of God or a singer with
it with a big audience doing something
quite ordinary putting wrestling with a
car seat or buying lettuce at Whole
Foods or giving birth in a stable so
it’s the same story it just it just
keeps coming round we need to train
ourselves and give ourselves the tools
to spot the archetypes there’s a lot
less news than we think
manoeuvre number one okay other
maneuvers there’s something else that’s
really problematic about the news
nowadays which is that we can hear
things like today in the Democratic
Republic of Congo 300 people died and
afterwards we can go make a cup of tea
and not give it another thought or we go
straight to sleep you’re a disaster news
seems to be a perfect thing you can you
can listen to the news through other
people and then go to be asleep within 5
minutes
it’s an extraordinary unbelievable
ability are we crazy
are we the nastiest people species that
could ever have been invented how come
we don’t care how come despite all the
fiber optic cables and satellites and
foreign journalists rigging their lives
in places how come what gets called
World News which is primarily disaster
based gets one from the lowest audience
figures of any kind of news imaginable
it’s to do with empathy right the news
is so focused on getting us information
hard data through any people have died
that it forgets a very important thing
trying to make us care about it and the
very important thing about caring you
cannot care about 300 people dying if
you never knew they existed if their
existence was entirely unsuspected and
it entails highly uninteresting and
abstract their deaths will seem equally
uninteresting and abstract the news
doesn’t recognize this that doesn’t
recognize this phenomenon and therefore
it parachutes us into areas of disaster
at the last moment we need to know about
the steady state of a place before its
catastrophes can come in any way to
matter to us some people say well we’re
racists and that’s obviously why we
don’t care about a democratic problem
Congo these people got different skin
color so therefore you know I we don’t
get that’s nonsense of course we could
care you know we’ll sit in the
performance of King Lear and we’ve
a guy who never even existed hundreds
and hundreds of years ago so we have
immensely rich powers of empathy but
they need to be stirred into action and
the way they’re stirred into action is
by a discipline which were want of a
better word we could call art art is the
name of the discipline designed to get
big and important ideas more powerfully
more imaginatively
into our heads in the realm of news the
art form that is predominant is
photojournalism the problem with with
photojournalism is there’s ever less of
it that news organizations will pay for
reliably if you draw any many depressed
people out there philosophers top top of
the league but right below them are
photo journalists no one loves them a
bit cause that they do their work in
people at Magnum you know in despair the
great material is not recognized it’s
very very important to have good
pictures right that helps a story to get
across what is a good picture I’m not
talking about color balance or you know
cropping etc that’s not really when it
comes down to a good picture is a bearer
of new information it doesn’t really
corroborate something that you already
knew it advances the state of knowledge
take child marriage we’ve all heard
about child marriage and those things
you know we might have read about it
this is a photo by this is incidentally
Democratic Republic of Congo a photo
that’s probably not going to help us to
cap this is something that might help us
to care it’s definitely Sinclair
Pulitzer prize-winning photographer did
a wonderful photo essay on child
marriage in Yemen one learns all sorts
of things from you know this picture
first of all you realize that it’s not
little girls getting married it’s little
old ladies these children have had
something so traumatic happen to them
that they have aged overnight seemingly
and they have a kind of poignant
pathetic sadness in their eyes and
meanwhile the men are not you know the
powerful brutes one imagines they’re
like lost children themselves so it’s a
lot more complicated there’s a lot of
information one can stare at this
picture for a long time and develop some
of the deeper feelings that a bad
picture
whatever the cropping and color balance
is all about is going to deny us so we
need good quality images and more than
that we need good quality art to get us
to care about data we can’t simply care
about data however it’s landed
given to us on it on on our plates we
need it to be properly cooked presented
seduced we need to be seduced into
caring this happens not just in areas of
the developing world you know this is
President Obama this is a dead picture
we don’t we don’t let anything about
them at the man with that we’ve seen
this a hundred times we don’t pay any
attention this picture is alive because
it’s telling us something new now we
know that Obama is a fake and can fake
things to get elected did we know that
Obama can sometimes fake things in order
to please the child of a White House
staffer who is playing spider-man not
necessarily this is new information
important information we are learning
this is photojournalism in action we
need more of it point number two moving
on many of us here are very nice if
everybody says really nice okay and
generally we trust our fellow citizens
to be nice you got two stranger you know
people at friendly right until you go on
a news website and you go what’s called
below the line and you realize a really
dark truth everybody is insane they are
completely crazy they’re vicious and
dark and cruel and unforgiving and just
angry all the time about everything what
is going on you know this is these are
some this is a an average I proposal
it’s an average article about George
Osborne in the Guardian I mean it’s
unbelievable
someone wants to sit on him and and
punch him supposed to take off his socks
and put him in his mouth I mean it just
say what is going on now look I think we
need to be prepared for this I think
it’s a little bit like journals you know
how a journal is in certain moods you
know things are going not going very
well you know you’ve got your bedroom
and you put out your journal and you
pour out your woes and you’ve got I’m
going to kill myself I hate everybody no
one understands me it’s all awful you
have good cry and the tears mingle with
the ink and then you shut the journal
and just be multiplied rascal you put
the journal away and and then you rejoin
a group life and you know hopefully no
one will ever read this because if they
did they would have a very distorted
picture it’s one moment it’s a snapshot
but let’s not dwell on it but if we get
arrested with that image we may never be
able to be seen in the same light again
and therefore it’s very important that
we don’t read people’s journals and it’s
equally important that we must never
read below the line because it’s not
really true
we need to be able to love each other
and trust one another and go out into
the world and do business and and and
and communicate with one another we
can’t do that if we take the message of
a comments seriously it’s a very there’s
a very particular pathology going on we
need to be aware of it and resist it a
lot of it is driven by hope the news
gives us hope that the world can be
better than it is and that it isn’t and
it produces enormous amounts of rage it
doesn’t help us the news doesn’t help us
with our homes
it also doesn’t of course help us with
our fear the news is always trying to
scare us about all sorts of things so we
need help with our fear and our hope now
this is another kind of story that is
very very popular this is one of the
most popular stories that ran in the
Daily Mail two years ago a huge number
of hits on this story this is a man a
father and this is his very sweet son
shortly after this picture was taken the
father took the son and his sister into
a lay-by and killed them and then killed
himself and they ended up in this sob
they were found by somebody walking
their dog dead and this was an
incredibly popular story what on earth
is going on are we crazy a we as a
species demented that we love to read
about soft which is obviously so sad and
really should be the realm of private
grief what’s going on let’s call an
Aristotle for a little bit of help here
Aristotle recognized that there is an
appetite a human appetite for very very
dark stories involving people who make
some error our prey to some passing
passion fury darkness and do something
utterly catastrophic and ruin themselves
and those around them and the name that
Aristotle gave to this phenomenon was of
course tragedy and very importantly
Aristotle believed that witnessing
tragedy was not merely a gory spectacle
was not merely some kind of
tittle-tattle or rubbernecking
it belonged to part of a civilizing
process the greatest Horrors have a role
to play in building up civilization and
that’s why the ancient Greeks believed
in taking the whole population regularly
and showing them this sort of stuff
hidup is the king which beats anything
in a Daily Mail in terms of
and I was already know how would you
headline this kind of story sex with mum
was blinding so then well but in other
words Aristotle believed that the the
disasters and misfortunes of others are
important to us why are they important
they teach us fear and pity pity for the
person who has ended up in a disastrous
catastrophic situation and the lesson is
we are all of us however much it seems
like everything’s fine with us and with
completely in command and rational all
of us are quite near the edge of
disaster all the time therefore we need
to be scared for ourselves and pitiful a
full of pity for the person who has been
pushed over the edge or the or was
pushed themselves over the edge the news
is so scared about compassion for those
who have done very bad things it’s
scared that we’ll want to open the
prison doors that it doesn’t take us to
that Aristotelian tragic cathartic
emotion so it brings us the raw material
doesn’t take us to the edge it merely
leaves us perturbed gripped knowing that
there’s something we’re searching for
and yet unable to offer us generally
redemption it’s because this is
considered as low news and serious
people in serious journalism think that
this sort of stuff is ridiculous it’s
clearly very important to us
psychologically and I believe we need to
find a way to use this material and
Sophocles and Aristotle are one
beginning of an answer there’s something
else that we absolutely adore doing when
we look at the news is taking care of
some car crashes love a good car crash
particularly there lots and lots people
dead maybe in some fog we also love we
also love when aeroplanes crash
beautiful things airbus both and then
they crash fantasy of the scale popular
with news websites what is going on are
we again sick no we’re not we’re
searching for the meaning of life the
thought of death a higher a heightened
awareness of death is one of the tools
which helps to bring the meaning of life
into focus we used to know this as a
civilization in the Middle Ages when you
were decorating your bedchamber or your
office a standard piece of decoration
was a memento mori a skull either
literal physical skull or a painting of
a skull
and this was designed to focus your mind
on the omnipresence of death not in
order to sink you into despair but in
order to remind you of what matters
I think we’re vainly searching for an
element of that when we come up against
the sudden awareness of the loss of
others in tragic accidents but again the
news is not helping us it’s not tying up
the loose ends and that’s why it’s we’re
both compelled because there is
something important and yet unresolved
and slightly with a low-level anxiety
because there’s been no catharsis okay
the other thing that the news constantly
does to us is make us scared of
everything of bird flu and swine flu and
cockroaches and strange UFOs and
Martians and any that you name it with
constantly being terrified and you know
it’s very surprising but we live with so
much terror news and use terror that it
sometimes amazing when people you know
people’s car breaks down on a country
lane and you know it’s time to go and
talk to a stranger very difficult moment
when you’re reading the news because you
know that everyone is going to be ax
murderer a pervert or a widow or a
pedophile so what do you do well you
have to go and talk and then nine times
out of ten in fact nine point nine nine
nine nine nine times out of ten it’s
absolutely fine indeed they’re really
nice because most people are really
really nice we wouldn’t have murders on
the front page if people murdered all
the time it’s deeply anomalous we forget
this very basic point the news that you
know the news headlines is a such a
distorted picture of our society we’re
constantly losing a sense of how things
really are and we we start we constantly
take the anomalous to be the normal
instead of seeing that of course it’s
only on the front page because it is so
deeply unusual the first lesson of
looking at all news sources remember
that it is not the norm that’s why it’s
there so the new swings us into terrible
fears and then occasionally it swings us
into hope particular regarding
politicians maybe this politician can
fix it the last one was useless but this
one can fix it and then also health news
health news is a repository of a kind of
utopian ideal that perhaps we can crack
death so lots of thoughts about you know
what will cure Alzheimer’s may be extra
walnuts at night or some special long
socks that you’re worn we’re on long
flights I mean what’s going to cure
kidney disease maybe it’s you know some
flowers or whatever it is it’s
suggestions of the kinds of things that
may help us what the news doesn’t do is
to accept the baseline truth which is
we’re all going to die and rather than
accepting this sober fact with dignity
like these guys used to do it gives us a
kind of hope that perhaps we can crack
it and it gives us a feeling that you
know guys in white coats are currently
just now and you know MIT or in Stanford
trying to solve the thing and if we just
get the new kind of fruit juice we’ll be
solved etc it doesn’t do as the greatest
favor which is to induct us gently and
with dignity into the base facts of our
lives it swings us from extremes of hope
to despair and leaves us anxious now
the other thing that we need to really
get a grip on is this phenomenon
celebrity now serious people are
appalled by the fact that we’re all
gripped by celebrity and they point out
the celebrities are absolutely vulgar
and gross and disgusting and they’ve
shunt the whole thing now I think it’s
very important for a society to have
celebrities we can’t do without
celebrities we need role models the idea
of a role model is fundamental all good
societies have had role models you can’t
do without them the problem is that’s
not abandoned the making of role models
to the lowest common denominator but at
the moment the serious news doesn’t care
about anointing celebrity so it abandons
this task to the lowest common common
denominator and that’s where we get this
very nice young lady there are sometimes
glimpses of how how things might be
recently Natalie Portman took her
two-year-old child to the park now going
to the park with a small child is very
boring as you all know however is also
really really important it’s really
important because their development your
development etc it’s very important it’s
very useful when a big star who could be
doing all sorts of things decides that
actually she’s going to take us onto the
park suddenly it shines the light of
glamour and we need glamour to encourage
us to do things that you know not a
pleasant to do we need a little bit of
help and there is st. Mattala helping us
set Natalie the saint of going for a
walk in the park now we used to be
surrounded by Saints Society used to be
surrounded by Saints who we would say
for this and a saint for that and they
would not just in the right direction a
well-functioning society I think is one
that has useful role models this model
has really broken down partly because
elites refused to accept the seriousness
of the job of
role-modeling look there’s something
else about the news and it happens on
the weekend mostly on the weekend
there’s this sort of idea that of
reading the news the newspapers per tick
in particular is a normal thing to do on
the weekend so you know it’s a sunny
Sunday morning the birds are chirping
and you’ll go and read the Sunday
newspaper there’s something very
dangerous that is likely to happen when
you do so there’s sometimes you know
warnings of strobe lighting when they’re
showing you images in a warning strobe
lighting what they should really be over
the Sunday papers is warning NV NV the
Sunday newspapers are the moment of most
concentrated a dose of envy that we’re
likely to receive from the news although
throughout the week it will be doing a
jolly good job of dosing us up the
reason is that we live in very mobile
societies where the possibility of
attaining amazing things is
unfortunately a little bit too close to
be put completely out of mind we know
that it’s possible for example this is a
man called Ellen Musk he’s 46 years old
two years older than me used to be great
when you’re a bit younger you can always
go well it’s almost 46 ok well that’s me
I’ve got another 12 years so I could you
know this guy found at eBay and PayPal
and he’s putting men on Mars and he’s
developed an electric car company and
and this is his wife and he’s got five
children he’s just and his was a twelve
billion dollars and we’re supposed to be
happy about this
we’re supposed really pleased we’re
suppose we’re supposed to be able to
read this sort of stuff and then go
darling shall we have lunch and just not
suffer any kind of damaging effect it’s
nonsense
this is deeply worrying now part of our
neo Christie and Heritage’s were
embarrassed about Envy
we shouldn’t be embarrassed about Envy
we should put it to use Envy is very
useful inside every envious attack there
is a clue however foggy it might be
about something that we should be trying
to achieve or attain but what we need to
do is to sit down and analyze quite
soberly and with sensitivity what is
making us anyways we should let me keep
a diary of anybody write down the names
of everyone who makes you envious
because you’ll start to see if you study
those names you’ll start to see patterns
emerging and those patterns are
a code about where you should be heading
in your life for example find look at
this man more closely so I’ve got it you
know if I try and move on from a general
envious attack towards a more sincere
focus okay what does this man really
teach me about what I want I don’t
actually want to start an electric car
company I’ve got no interest in putting
men on Mars etc my wife’s very nice we
don’t don’t need this lady so what is it
what is it really that’s that’s kind of
getting me about this man I think what
I’m envious of is his courage his
determination is ability to persuade a
lot of people of some unlikely sounding
things and carry them with him to all of
these things are really important the
news and particularly in that staple of
Sunday newspaper the interview is
hopeless about this it’s circled
people’s achievements without really
trying to pin down what might be
important it doesn’t help us with our
envy because it isn’t alive to it so
again you’re starting to get a sense of
the themes that I’m taking the news is
often presenting us with important and
interesting material and then leaving us
to work out what we might do with it
that’s why my book is called a user’s
manual how can we make use of this stuff
some of which is very important how can
we make it go better in our own lives
now look there’s something else about
the news and that is the idea that the
more serious the news outlet you go to
the less the news that they should be
providing you with should be biased in
other words the worst kind of uses read
biased news and the best kind of news is
unbiased news so the words got news is
you know Fox News or the Daily Mail or
something through biased news and at
that terrible but you go up up the scale
and of course you know in this country
right on top of it the pile is the BBC
and and this must be very good because
they just present you with the
information the facts and they’re not
trying to influence your get inside your
mind or tell you what to think or
anything like that they’re very balanced
reporting so they’ll do a feature on in
a genital mutilation so that someone is
for genital mutilation and someone is
against genital mutilation someone is
for genocide and someone’s against
genocide I’m not just your favorite
event it’s nonsense of course you need
bias the thing is you need the right
sort of bias
you don’t need crazy buyers but what we
desperately need is some guidance what
are we to make
the flurry of facts that comes at us
every day we need guidance but the news
is prey odd moments to a kind of sense
of restraint that if it were to tell us
what to think we might not be able to
say no we’d be sort of convinced by the
BBC the BBC told me the other day that
the only moment when they abandon
impartiality after much heartache and
much thinking is they’ve decided to
admit that they thought that apartheid
was a bad thing ever since then they
have not come down on any issue with any
degree of bias they should get a lot
more biased we need bys particular when
it comes something like economics you
know economic news is you know sense the
most important views and yet the way
that the economics is reported in series
outlets is so often devoid of the kind
of muscle that will enable us to make
sense of the world that we live in and
give us a sense of the options the real
options that we’re facing so there’ll be
you know very small you know issues
around you know interest rates or
currency movements or of course these
are have their place in are important
but the wider picture which is who’s
getting what and why are we doing this
where what are the options for change so
unbelievable how even at the height of
the financial crisis this kind of data
was kept out of the public mind people
at this point might say oh you a Marxist
and you were going to know there’s a
real difference between you know there’s
a real spectrum between a Marxist on the
one hand and people who support the
status quo absolutely on the other
there’s a lot of good ideas out there
about how we might make our world
slightly better slightly nicer and yet
you wouldn’t necessarily know it from
following the economic news agenda and
this leads to on the one hand in a
bottled up rage and low-level depression
and then occasionally explosions of rage
but very inarticulate ones this is the
Occupy movement people who care very
deeply know that things are wrong but
have been watching the wrong kind of
news because they have no good ideas
about what to change so a desperate
naivety and sentimentality allied with
real energy to change it’s a recipe for
disaster so after a while these guys get
hosed down by the police and it moved on
and the world doesn’t change the news is
partly responsible for creating a world
that marries up this kind of genuine
passion with ignorance and dfangs the
ability for change
very bad part of the
problem is that the news is obsessed by
bad guys and it hates systemic problems
many of the problems facing our
civilization are not the work of anyone
that you could tightly put in handcuffs
and take away right it’s the work of
people who are not necessarily evil but
misguided not necessarily you know
looking to corrupt and control but
they’ve you know lacking imagination
take the housing crisis that’s
afflicting the Southeast of England it’s
not the work of one person that you
could tightly put in prison and yet it’s
one of the most the biggest problems
it’s a messy story that journalists
don’t quite like because if you open up
the hearts of most journalists on their
heart is written Watergate they looking
for the Watergate paradigm paradigm
everywhere one person or few people a
cabal in a room somewhere doing very bad
things journalist comes along gets a
little bit of information the world
changes right most problems are much
subtler much more elusive than that and
yet the news doesn’t fill it can’t see
them through the filter look the other
thing that the news doesn’t tell us and
it’s a very basic point is that the most
important things that have happened in
the history of humanity have not
necessarily happened in the previous
half-hour we are a species with a long
history and there’s a lot of stuff that
we have forgotten and that therefore if
it came to the fore right now would be
news you know if the contents of Plato’s
Republic became properly known it would
be headline news
you know democracy not always good says
big thinker you’re amazing you know that
could be really big thinker or you know
if the truth of the Buddha were told
more explicitly this will be you know
headline news so the news is supposed to
be the most important thing in our
society right we that’s why we accorded
this almost religious reverence that’s
why there’s this sonorous music before a
bulletin that’s why we listen like
children at school assembly for the
important stuff we’ve got to make sure
that it really is the important stuff
which may mean sometimes it may
absolutely mean what happened in the
last half hour and sometimes we may need
to stretch our optics 3,000 years so we
need news organizations that are willing
to accept this and then sometimes we as
the consumers of news need to realize
that there are moments where we’ve had
enough news and we need to go somewhere
where we’re left alone with as it were
our own agenda the news is the most
wonderful tool of distraction ever
invented and the great thing about is it
it sounds so serious you know what are
you doing darling I’m just looking
News Arness in the news so important
right if you said you know what you
doing I’m just staring out the window
and sort of thinking about a moment in
my childhood get up doing the washing-up
that’s not serious right so we need to
accept that being with ourselves taking
the news from ourselves is a very
important part of what it means to be a
good citizen and a good press aeroplanes
are some of the few places left nowadays
until they put Wi-Fi everywhere be a sad
day but for the moment we can still find
room moments for reflection on a long
flight and the thing about you know room
for reflections we start to notice all
sorts of things we’re not alone on the
planet there are other things on the
planet and they’ve got really different
agenda and this guy doesn’t care about
all sorts of things that you think are
really important he doesn’t know that
it’s the Sochi Olympics he doesn’t know
about you know Nick Clegg and David
Cameron and Scotia nationalism and it’s
just important to remind us of the
existence of these very small creatures
talking of small creatures there are too
small creatures in this room that I
elected with special thanks to they’re
my children who they’re not the size of
this bird by any means they’re seven and
nine they’re deer creatures and they
daily remind me that there are
priorities which have nothing to do with
the news agenda and I’m very grateful
for them for coming here for listening
today I know that it’s a bit of a ball
for them but they are a reminder they’re
a reminder of a very important balancing
act psychological balancing act which
we’re finding it ever harder to do look
by training I’m a philosopher and
philosophers think that they know it all
and that they’ve got very important
truths in hand the problem is no one’s
really listening the average worker
philosophy a friend of mine told me the
other day the I could forever average
academic work of philosophy is read by
300 people
right that’s 300 people and yet this is
where to be really important truth
the Daily Mail website has 40 million
hits a day 40 so you know you’ve got 340
million that is the world that we’re
dealing with what this one’s supposed to
do so one the obvious option is to
despair get very very sad but I and the
school of life we don’t believe in
despair with very very optimistic people
so the other day the school of life and
I we came up with a new project it’s
funded by the school
and what we’ve done is to rewrite the
mail online and every day we look at all
the stories the mail looks at you know
the murders the suicides the incest the
celebrity stories etc and we caption
them differently though we caption them
with a view to philosophical justice
compassion kindness gentleness etc so
these are the what I introduce you to
the philosophers male you could look at
at website philosophers mail.com and you
look at we’ve had a great start please
come and visit us it’s a sort of project
that we loved doing at the school of
life so would you end it there thank you very much
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