To only care what happens in my metaphorical backyard?

[ExercicenformedeZ]

Just that. Inspired by lots of threads and lots of people in my real life bemoaning the state of the world. I'm past caring. I worry about me, my immediate family, and my local community. The rest I am largely ceasing to even read about, let alone try to do anything about.
YANBU. That's all anyone can be expected to do.
YABU. That is short sighted, and everyone should be trying to make a difference not just to their own friends and neighbours, but to the wider world.

But there's no point worrying when you can't do anything about it.

How so? How can it be?

I get it. The world is fucked, life as we know it isn’t likely to be here in 20 years.

DH and I have a lovely time drinking sangria in the garden, hosing each other with cold water, cuddling the cat and re-enacting Peep Show scenes with each other. I’m trying to hold onto and enjoy what I can control, which is what I have in my home.

I can’t muster the energy to concern myself with which country is going to nuke us, or which political party is about to fuck our country into the ground. I’ll vote, sign petitions, but I don’t think they make any difference. In the meantime I’ll just try to have a laugh and a cuddle with the people I love while I can.

We’re currently lying on mouldy loungers in the garden drinking campari spritz and listening to the neighbours in the paddling pool, pretending we’re in Sicily. We’re having a laugh and that’s the best we can do for ourselves right now.

You know, I was thinking this today. I've been supporting a good friend after her son's death and then was listening to the news re Trump, Israel, Iran etc and thought what the fuck!
My family, my friends and my community are the most important people to me and the war mongering bastards can just fuck off!

Very good answer.

the older I get the more I realise that my comfortable lifestyle is very precarious and built on so much having to work that suits me from around the world.

Because I feel connected to the world. I have friends all over the world but also, maybe because I have moved around so much. I'm sure you've heard about the butterfly effect?

As I understand it, the butterfly effect is an philosophical abstraction. I don't think it's meant to be taken literally.

Let's say we're not talking about butterflies but nuclear weapons. That will pollute the turkish fruit and vegetables imported by the UK. So coming to your backyard.

I like to be informed on world events but 100% refuse to be worried or stressed by them. My focus is only reserved for my family and my job. Keeping both running smoothly is where I keep my energy.

In the 21st century, the world is your backyard.

That's less true than we think it is. It can feel that way because of the way news works.

I think it’s more true than you think it is.

It depends on how connected you are to tragedies I think. I’m Jewish and have many families and friends who live in Israel, so it feels personal to me. I also have good friends that are Iranian so I worry for their families safety too.

if you have zero connections to warring countries, then I understand wanting to not get too emotionally invested.

That isn't an example of the butterfly effect. The whole point of the butterfly effect is that it is non linear. It isn't anything as direct as importing contaminated veg.

I sort of agree but probably would have worded it differently. It's not that I don't care, it's that I try not to give too much headspace to things I have no control over.

You can worry yourself sick over a 3rd world war or environmental disaster, and you can change your lifestyle to do your bit, and if something happens then you deal with it, otherwise you have no choice to get on with things and there are enough problems in day to day life that needs looking after.

There isn't much we can do (at least not while we don't want to give up too many of our comforts and our time) but giving to charity and writing to your mp is doing something. I have got no illusions that my mp gives a shit about what I write to her or even reads my emails herself but if many people write to them about the same.topic then they will realise that public opinion is turning against whatever the status quo is and that might make them take action.

I wish I could do more but I barely manage to cope with the demands of my own life. Not because it's so complex or because I live in a war zone but just because I'm incompetent and lazy. I do admire and feel grateful to people who do more than that!!

I think it's possible to 'care' without feeling a need to read the news constantly and be bombarded with information 24/7. Being fully informed and emotionally impacted yet powerless to help is a very bad combination. Far better to redirect your attention and emotional energy towards your small community.

I agree. Why worry about things you can't change?

I would never want to be ignorant and ill-informed about world events.

But I don't think it's necessary to wallow or immerse oneself in the horrible details of the news all the time. When I was younger I tended to do this and frankly, the things I read or heard then still haunt me. Details of the Rwandan genocide or the things Boko Haram do/did in Nigeria. Beyond horrific, and I'll spare people on this thread. But seriously - it's a mild from of PTSD!! I still suffer from invasive thoughts about these (and other) tragedies.

Nowadays I read the headlines, sometimes fuller reports on the BBC website, but I prioritise safeguarding my mental health.

Say you live in the UK. You have siblings living in, say, the US and India (lets say one moved to be with their partner, one has a job there). One of your children is studying in the Netherlands. Another is travelling through Asia on their year out. You have a close friend who has moved to South America and lives there now. Other less close friends live in Australia, New Zealand, France, Italy, Spain, Canada. You work for a company whose head office is in Japan and your job occasionally takes you abroad for conferences, including Dubai, Turkey, Austria, Ireland, the US. Your next door neighbour is from Afghanistan and still has family there. In your book group there are people from Sri Lanka and China, who still have family there.

Would you be interested/ concerned about anything that is happening in any of those countries?

Much of the above is true for me by the way, or close relatives, not all of it.

I think concerning yourself only with the areas of life where you can excercise influence and make a positive difference is far more productive than endless hand wringing and angst about things entirely outside of your control. I'm much the same. Work very hard in areas where it counts, and when the opportunity presents to have a small wider impact, such as elections and supporting campaigns, i take it. But there's as much work to be done in the little things than the big ones and it's about being realistic about where your efforts will help most.

Your poll makes no sense, really. ‘Anyone’ and ‘everyone’? No.

If for your well-being you need to focus on achievable goals close to home, great. If that’s where your energy is best used, and you wouldn’t be like a German in the 1930s if something actually happened, also great.

I can make a difference in my sector. I’m vaguely listened to so I can use that to affect positive change.

And we forget the things we managed to do, it isn’t all useless. We freed Nelson Mandela, we saved the whale, we fixed the hole in the ozone layer. Political activism isn’t nothing. It often amounts to nothing, but not always. If you don’t want to do it, that’s your choice, and it may be the right one for you. But not everyone.

I like to know what’s going on to a certain extent but too much bad news and doom and gloom just overwhelms me so I do try to limit it