How long will we last?

The Brits actually wrote a story on the dangers of taking over-the-counter meds like aspirin and ibuprofen. They are brave, nothing like that would fly on US news. And if it did, it would probably be tainted.

Last year, there were reports of 964 patients in the UK who died as a result of an adverse reaction[caused by "over the counter" drugs such as aspirin and ibuprofen], compared with more than 1,000 the previous year, and 861 in 2004.

So it is my belief that news reporting in the US is in total shambles. In my cultural imperalism class, the T.A. asked if anyone had heard about the assassination attempt on Vice President Dick Cheney that recently happened. Everyone was pretty much shaking their head in the class, and then she asked how many of us knew that Anna Nicole Smith died. And EVERYONE raised their hand. Apparently they happened in the same week. Shame on the networks who screen such news from the American Public, and instead fill our heads with pop culture. I know more about celebrities' lives than I do about any political figures names or faces.

But here's the catch...I don't watch the news! I hate it. And so the news I get is 'what's being talked about' or in recent front page headlines, or magazines in grocery store lines. Sometimes I poke around on BBC when I'm feeling too numb to the 6.6 billion people on Earth. I think the networks must think we are too dumb, too uninterested, or to naive to see the brainwashing + ignorant, selfish mindset going on.

In a shameful way, the plight of my generation in America is quite sad. It's our fault, for not pursuing and digging for information, for not being concerned about what is going on in the rest of the world. But can you blame us? We are 'wired and fed' from childhood to work hard to buy that new ipod to get the latest poorly-lyric'd songs to listen to while we walk around campus to avoid interaction with people, ignore personal relationships and potential friendships, and to keep our mind from 'questioning' too many things, hence...numbing us entirely to anything except what feels good, looks good, tastes good, smells good, sounds good. We're killing ourselves, the core of what it means to be human! We have begun to walk around like mindless pleasure-seeking zombies! I am just as guilty as the next person.

O woe is my generation. How long can we last this way before God smites us from the face of the earth?