Only news
The latest events that are reported to us make up the news—and the default spirit of the news is that it is bad. Saying “bad news” is itself redundant. Good news is seldom reported on—not because it is rare, but because it is too common, I would contend. It doesn’t hold an audience’s attention to report that planes arrived on time, for instance. That represents someone else’s good fortune, and it doesn’t otherwise satisfy any inner needs. We find it more pertinent to learn of someone else’s bad fortune—and to try to figure out how it befell them, or how they brought it upon themselves.
This bias to the negative is adaptive. Our species (like all the other surviving species) has persisted by being risk averse to a significant degree. We tend to move away from things that put our lives and our families’ lives at risk. Our senses are on high alert for threats and danger. We want to learn about what dangers to avoid. That’s the news that’s important to us.
To imagine ourselves as our ancient predecessors, we didn’t care if the cavemen next door had a great dinner yesterday—not if we didn’t have a share of the meal. We did want to know about a sabertooth cat eating local big game, though. That information was more relevant and potentially useful to staying alive.
None of this is meant to overstate the case. The negativity bias has its uses, but it is something to be aware of rather than necessarily embraced. There’s a lot of bad news because that’s what we tend to be drawn to it. Purveyors of news are just satisfying the demand. The modern world, especially in the developed nations, is not as perilous as it’s made out to be. It’s nothing like the dangers faced by our forebears. Yet it’s easy to see how the bias could become a basis for mental torment, though. The bias amplifies the bad news no matter what.
Much of my thinking on this has been influenced by The Power of Bad by Roy Baumeister and John Tierney, a book that is organized in chapters about different aspects of this bias. One is about bad news and the modern media. Ironically, another is about negative online reviews, and how these tend to be elevated above positive reviews—and the top two reviews of their book are negative ones at the site Goodreads! So here’s my negative review of those negative reviews: the first has an alternative theory of mind that appears to revolve around gender, the second states that the reader didn’t finish the book.
At any rate, those reviews aside, I found the book interesting, but admit that it helped to organize a set of my own thoughts about negativity. It scratched a mental itch for me, as it were.
Of course, none of this will matter in the near future, when AI chatbots take over the writing of book and product reviews, the books themselves, and this newsletter. Then we’ll have the time to return to our troglodyte roots, worrying about the caveman or -woman next door, and why s/he has no reason to lead such a happy and carefree existence.
Today’s special animal friend is the Southern Pig-Tailed Macaque, Macaca nemestrina. This endangered primate is native to Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. They have been introduced to Singapore and the Natuna Islands. The Natuna Islands are the subject of a dispute between the Chinese and Indonesian governments, and they have great scenery, marine life, and local culture. Indonesia would like tourism, please:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kA8_OuaiRso
Male Southern pig-tailed macaques are about 2 feet long (body length) and females are 18-21 inches. Males can weigh up to 26 lbs. and females about half that. They have fairly long, buff-brown fur which is darker on their backs, lighter underneath. Their short, skinny tails curl up a bit, inspiring the name.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5udjOijqJcE
The species lives in large groups which separate into smaller family bands when foraging during the day. They are mainly terrestrial, but they are excellent climbers and also enjoy getting in the water, unlike most primates. Males in the group compete for dominance, while female status is hereditary. The alpha female leads the group to food and shelter, while the dominant male organizes the other males for defense.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxOG3y2RTHw
Don’t feed wild animals, people. It’s bad for them. Macaques eat fruit, berries, grains, other vegetation, and some invertebrates. They can live in a variety of habitats, including undisturbed rain forest, oil palm plantations, and second-growth mountain forests. Females give birth to one infant every two years. Infant mortality is high. Surviving offspring are mature at 3 to 5 years. They can live 35 years in captivity.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/whHT_2E9xf8
Southern pig-tailed macaques are an agricultural and village pest, and they are often persecuted or killed by Indonesian farmers and villagers. Educational programs and financial support are some of the ways conservationists are addressing this threat. Habitat loss and degradation, including burning, clear-cutting, and pollution, are an additional threat. This species is also collected for the pet trade and for medical research.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mloYW1GEFO4
Thank you to reader Wilhelm for suggesting Borneo as a topic.
I write negative reviews on the library's website sometimes. I make sure to mention two or three specific points. That way, another reader can evaluate what I have said against his own preferences. Maybe he likes the very things I dislike. The same with movie reviews: if I see a glowing review that praises "intense, fast-paced action," I know that it's not what I want to watch.