The other day I was at a family gathering and listened to my uncle complaining about the situation in Gaza.
Whilst I’ve no doubt there’s many issues in Gaza, what struck me was that we’re about 4,000km (2,500 miles) away from that particular issue.
We have no family there and to the best of my knowledge, he has no connections with the place.
I’m not expert in geo-politics, but from a brief Google there are many ongoing conflicts currently, including in Syria, Congo and Burma. He didn’t mention any of these.
Perhaps he’d recently seen something in the media on Gaza, which brought it to the forefront of his attenion.
On top of this, Ireland (which is where he lives) currently has an issue with mass migration and population replacement.
It led me to reflect on how it’s easier to ignore a problem at home, and instead focus on one far away.
The one close to home is confronting, because there’s stuff you can actually do around it.
Whereas the problem far away is easier because it’s typically outside of your sphere of control.
In essence:
It’s worth noting that watching mainstream media propaganda (CNBC/BBC/FOX/newspapers/etc) provides excellent material for anyone looking for far away problems.
So, no only does this issue of “issue swapping” exist, but worse, it’s often unconscious.
Personally I’ve done this a number of times in my life.
I can’t fix the past, but I can at least recognise the issue going forward 🔥