Someone has to do something, and it’s incredibly pathetic that it has to be us. Jerry Garcia, The grateful dead
Americans are not doing well. Almost two-thirds are too heavy, out of shape, and over-medicated. Most rely too heavily on doctors, prescribers, experts, and preachers. People are not very resistant to nonsense and superstition, but too resistant to science, reason, responsibility and the fine art of living well. In short, things are out of place and someone has to do something. What is to be done? By whom?
Well the last part is easy, it can be just unbelievably pathetic but the late, great guitarist of the Dignified death It was right – we have to be us. But what? What is to be done?
Well, there is no short-term or instant panacea, no one-size-fits-all solution, and no radical solution to the limitless attitude and behavior problems that the solutions we found ourselves brought about. But I have some ideas for reform, and this essay is about one of them.
I suggest a change in the way we receive our news. A reform in this area could be useful for more people to realize that their health status and much more depends on them. My idea is this: Give people NUDE news.
No, I don’t mean NUDE as naked, naked Russian dicks reading sports scores and the like on slimy internet shows, acting like Katie Couric or Barbara Walters or someone talented wearing nothing, an obvious ploy to catch and weak-minded males to tune in. This is exploitative, disgusting, and yet another example of women taking advantage of naive and innocent guys. However, it is not at all the nature of my call to the NUDE news.
NUDE is an acronym for news you deserve every day. The focus of news you deserve every day it is based on content, not appearance.
NUDE news would feature stories about people, places and things, changes and issues that connect to the reality of Americans who do not live or age well. Of course, not all news stories would fit into this connection, but time would be set aside if my idea were implemented for news stories that relate to people struggling to be too heavy, out of shape, and over-medicated. It’s a huge crisis: the media shouldn’t ignore Americ’s crippling dependencies. Citizens deserve NUDE news – every day.
While not all news needs to address reforms for an unhealthy population (i.e. REAL fact-based wellness skills associated with positive, rational, secular outcomes), I’d certainly like to hear some of it on most broadcasts. It could be called something like, NUDE news now – breaking news you deserve today. Such programming would be refreshing and much appreciated by the converts, the sages of TRUE wellness. The latter would be nice and good for stations wanting to add viewers, but the most important consequence would come from increases in audience health and sanity.
In his book, The assault to the reason, Former Vice President Al Gore identified two types of pollution: that of our planet and that of our politics and culture. A New York Times critic called Mr. Gore’s two-part approach, an obsession with the toxicity of the atmosphere and the toxicity of the public sphere. Well, I think Mr. Gore and others should also focus on (or obsess over) pollution and toxicity from the worst lifestyles, that is, the fact that Americans are too heavy, out of shape, and too medicated.
But until they do, I will. That’s why I’m asking for news from NUDE.
REAL wellness values are not the norm, as most will readily recognize. The reality is that daily news reports are geared towards bad news, problems, not inspiring wellness solutions. A NUDE perspective would modify that situation, such newscasts would include reflections on how things could be, from a saner and saner point of view.
Of course, some shows are exceptional and offer unique versions of NUDE news. Saturday night live, The Rachel Maddow Show and Stephen Colbert, for instance. These programs provide daily insights into wellness. All offer invaluable qualities of well-being: they are true goldmines of doubt, skepticism, reason, ethical perception and, of course, humor. Imagine how desirable it would be if such wellness prospects were represented in healthier, happier network news programming.
Here’s an example of how NUDE reports might work. An organization called Epocrates surveyed 580 physicians in 2007. A summary report of the findings revealed that physicians consider obesity, chronic disease, and smoking to be the top three public health problems in the US.
That is normal news. If it was a NUDE news story, it would follow a comment that would present a REAL wellness perspective that challenged limited data analysis, the 580 physician approach. The doctors may have had good intentions, but they were short-sighted: they missed the three main problems, namely:
1. The absence of a culture that makes everyone aware of and supports positive wellness choices that lead to habits that prevent obesity, reduce risk of chronic disease, and make smoking almost an unthinkable form of self-ruin.
2. The presence of educational systems that teach what, not how to think; and
3. Poor leadership, particularly from politicians who fail to enact effective and efficient policies.
As for the third point, the charge here is that politicians do not serve taxpayers by funding miserable programs that are wasteful and have adverse consequences. Therefore, many programs do much more harm than good. Think of national security, the war on drugs, the pharmaceutical industry subsidy, abstinence-only sex education, faith-based public funding, the so-called misappropriation scandal. assignments and, horror of horrors, the continuing madness of our seemingly endless involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq.
There you go. A spoonful of NUDE news.
