America Leads the World in An Ongoing Anxiety Epidemic –

The Big Picture – 
By Glynn Wilson –

It’s a perfectly lovely, sunny day along the Gulf Coast, hovering around 70 degrees as I write this, and the thing to do is to sit outside on the back deck and enjoy a Sunday breakfast, and be happy.

Unfortunately, like a lot of my friends on Facebook, it’s hard to sit back and be happy — if you pay attention to the news.

There’s a play running on Broadway retelling the story of Howard Beale, the wild and crazy anchorman from the 1976 movie “Network.”

CBS “Sunday Morning” carried a story about it. But as a news man myself, I found it unsatisfying.

The point of the story was to say — on television no less — that TV news companies profit from appealing to people who are mad, disgruntled, by keeping them tuned in to the madness. Clearly Donald Trump knows a thing or two about this, which explains some of his success in both attacking the media — and dominating media time.

Bryan Cranston plays a modern incarnation of Beale, and says in the interview, “What makes it so relevant is, Howard Beale rails against his audience’s addiction to the tube, to television,” even as he draws them in and keeps them watching.

“Well, it’s worked for many people,” Cranston laughed. “You know, President Trump is a brilliant mastermind in that regard. He knows how to get in, stimulate – one way or the other – either pro or con. But he knows how to manipulate and stimulate and work that, and massage the energy of what that is.”

But remember what Beale said in the beginning, before his show went totally bonkers?

“First, you’ve got to get mad! You’ve got to say, ‘I’m a human being, goddamit! My life has value!’ … So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out and yell, ‘I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!'”

You don’t have to go to the window and shout anymore. You can do it on social media, Facebook and Twitter.

The media guests interviewed on the show were mostly useless in their analysis under the questioning of Ted Koppel, although I found one comment interesting. Carlos Maza, who appears on the news and opinion website Vox in his program “Strikethrough,” once said that “Democracy and capitalism are incompatible.” His response to that question from Koppel was incoherent, but it’s something I’ve written myself before. Certainly they are not the same thing, although politicians tend to make it seem so — and the press and media let them get away with it because of their own economic mandates.

Going Crazy in New York

But while the play is going on in New York, I’m told by a real live human being living in New York that people really are going crazy there now — mainly because of the antics and policies of President Donald Trump — so much so that it’s nearly impossible to get an appointment with a psychiatrist in the city these days.

Apparently it’s not just New York, but all over the country and even the world.

Worldwide Anxiety Epidemic

According to a story from the magazine Psychology Today this week, people in the United States lead the world in an ongoing anxiety epidemic, based on an extensive Gallup poll.

The Gallup World Emotions Report shows a rise in stress, worry and sadness across the globe.

Greece and the U.S. lead the world in adult stress levels at 59 percent and 55, while worldwide, 35 percent of people said they were stressed and worried.

Even with economic indicators showing a basically sound economy, adults in the U.S. are more worried, stressed, and angry compared to polls over the last 12 years, and anger is at its highest level since 2006 (22%). The percentage of Americans who experienced stress was 20 points higher than the global average.

It comes as no surprise to experts that younger Americans are having the hardest time. About 65 percent of people between 15 and 49 reported stress and 51 percent reported worry, while 32 percent reported that they were also angry.

This can only lead to even more violent incidents. On Saturday — six months to the day after a gunman killed 11 worshipers at a synagogue in Pittsburgh — another gunman opened fire at another synagogue, Chabad of Poway, near San Diego, California. Like the Pittsburgh murders in October, and the massacre at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand last month, the specter of online radicalization again reared its head, and the American president and his use of the press and social media seems to be part of the problem, not a solution.

While the Gallup survey is not enough to show the reasons for the increase in stress, similar research from the American Psychological Association shows that many people are bothered by what they see in the news. This research shows that Americans are increasingly stressed about the future of the country and the world.

What can people do about it other than to seek psychiatric help and take anxiety reducing drugs?

“The idea of finding a solution to the worldwide epidemic of anxiety is daunting,” researchers acknowledge. “Solutions would require sweeping changes in policy, the behavior of leaders, education and cultural mindsets.”

Potential Solutions

1. The press and media should stop covering Trump.

This gets a lot of support when you mention it on Facebook, but it’s not going to happen. The corporate media makes way too much money keeping people tuned in. Their ratings would fall, and as modern-day Howard Beales, they will keep people on the edge of their sanity covering Trump’s every move and every move by the Democrats to take him down.

Besides, it would violate the so-called news value of covering “prominence.” No one is more newsworthy than the president of the United States, the alleged “most powerful man in the world,” and a celebrity president who says crazy things every day is the most newsworthy thing of all.

Should the Media Walk Out on Trump?

2. Stop paying attention to the news.

Clearly there are large numbers of people who are giving this a try, and many people gave it up years ago. Surveys have shown for decades that these people say “the news is all bad” and they would like to see more positive news. This is what drives the “happy news” of local television news, and why more people say they get their news from local TV news than another other source.

My recommended solution? Stop watching the talking heads on cable TV. They really are modern-day Howard Beales, and thrive on catering to the stress and anxiety and worry of viewers.

We may make less money on the web press, but our idea is to report on the key important news of the day in a way that is not over-hyped and sensationalized just to get viewers and make money. Public affairs knowledge is more important than capitalism, if we are going to succeed in building a viable democracy.

3. Get rid of Trump.

Yes, getting rid of Trump as president would be a good start. Only we seem to be stuck with him for the next two years at least, if not four more. Unfortunately the Mueller report did not put forward enough evidence to indict, arrest and impeach Trump to remove him from office, so somehow the Democrats will have to come up with someone who can beat him in 2020.

Unfortunately for now, the Democrats so far have not found a candidate with the news dominating celebrity of Trump, so they may have a hard time beating him in 2020.

There’s lot of analysis out there about all of this from the print press online, including the editorial board of the Washington Post.

Unfortunately, it is becoming clear that the Democrats are going to be involved for the next year in a guerrilla war amongst themselves, according to Vanity Fair, to find an “electable” candidate who can beat Trump.

If you are a news junkie and a political activist, you can use your anger, stress, fear and anxiety and throw yourself into this process.

4. Take a break from media and social media.

What is the average news consumer to do? Maybe take a break for the next year and sit out the primary? But that might also mean an extended break from social media. The fight is going to be hard to escape.

5. Help create a better press online and social media.

I’m a news guy so I can’t really take a break from it, although I have already curtailed my activities to some extent to work on a solution to the fake news problem and the next phase of a better online press and social media. This work is still confidential for now, but stay tuned. With any luck and some significant funding, we might be able to get something up and running in time for the 2020 general election.

I am convinced I know how to combat fake news, to help fund a better press and make a significant difference in our democracy. But I cannot do this alone. I need the help of some smart people with big bucks who are also committed to tackling these problems into the future, both to save our experiment in democracy — and human life on planet Earth.