Is Destruction and Death really so entertaining?

What is the opposite of false hope? Is it false dread? . All I know is that it is pervasive. I have been watching a LOT of tv over the past 3 weeks because it is on non-stop at a place where I have been hanging out lately . I have noticed that most of the news is about death, destruction and the world going to hell in a handbasket.

It is interesting that people talk badly about those preachers who are all about hellfire and brimstone when that is exactly what I see on TV. What is with these movies about the end of the world? People seem to love watching New York city crumble, get flooded and see mobs of people running for their lives. This newest movie which depicts the end of hte world has as its heros (or in our postmodern age, more likely antiheroes) who are the last ones to survive some worldwide doom and gloom (nuclear? natural? I dont know) What is up with that as entertainment? I honestly do not know.

Do people seek out dread?I have seen a pattern in the past few weeks of tv-watching  that at 7:30 am one of the major network morning shows features some story of a tragic death, interviewing the dead person's loved ones and asking them to describe what it is like to have lost their loved ones in such a horrible way. I am curious about the timing of these stories. Why at the same time each morning? Why do they put these people in front of a camera with their fresh, gaping wounds of grief and ask them what it feels like? I think it is related to the phenomenon that makes people ask quickly "how old was she" and "was it expected" when they learn of someone's recent death. I think that there is an urge to put a distance between oneself and the tragedy at hand. With the knowlege that the person was such-and-such age or that it was not, in fact, a surprise that she died, people can breathe a sigh of relief that well, they don't match that criteria so they're safe from whatever disaster or disease took that person from this life.

What does this barrage of bad news about the end of the world coming soon in a violent and destructive way (ain't gonna happen, sweethearts, any more than Y2K, the Millennium Bug, Bird Flu or Sars) have to do with the exploitation of people's grief?

What I can say is that this fear, nay terror is contrary to the numerous messages of Jesus to us. We are told not to fear, to be just people, that we will be cared for, that God loves the world, that we are made in his image and likeness.   Fear leads to anger which leads to hate. This fear mongering which barrages us via the news and our entertainment is not tempered with or informed by the Christian message of hope, love and faith. Buying into such false dread means you panic when you don't have to panic. It means you assume the worst and that you become a person whose default setting is despair, not hope. This is not what we are made for. We are made to hope.