it's possible to listen to news every day and still keep that perspective on how safe and easy our lives are now. and it's reasonable to want to keep your ears

it's possible to listen to news every day and still keep that perspective on how safe and easy our lives are now. and it's reasonable to want to keep your ears perked up for the longer-term, slow moving and large threats via news (as you do with the economist & hn). by my estimation, the more immediate existential threat (to americans at least) is not terrorism or foreign governments or even guns or climate change (although we shouldn't lose sight of those things), but rather the economic destabilization brought on by the aggregation of power in large institutions. the smaller the person is relative to the institution, the more disempowered that individual will feel. let's favor smaller organizations, whether government or business. let's let what's happening immediately around us be the meaning we make of our lives. celebrate local achievements but leave celebrity to entertainment. we can engage in the local while monitoring the global, without pulling our hair out over it.