Does the News do us any good? That’s what @alaindebotton asks in this great RSA talk.

If you want to keep a population supine, addicted to the status-quo, unable to grasp their sense of what is possible, and what could be changed, you’ve got two options: one, censor the news completely. The other option is the practice we use, flood people with news, give them so much news, they don’t know what’s going on, and then you can tell them they’re free, that information is free… News has in many ways replaced religion, which used to be the place people went to find out what is right and wrong, and contemplate the meaning of life. Now we look to news as a system of authority, and it shapes our understanding of reality…