How to watch a documantary in mindfulness?

Dramatising documantaries.

I have been watching some history documentaries and noticed how the language is used to dramatise even otherwise boring uninterested things. I am going to expose some of the tricks here and you can be mindful about these in your next documentary. 

As an example often they talk about the biggest, massive, colossal things. They would give the height of the ruins in feet, not in meters. They would talk about deepest points of the ocean or compare with tallest monuments in the planet.

Or else they will talk about smallest things. Smallest mamal, smallest bird, tiniest creatures shown in macroscopic details.

Sometimes it is about fastest punch, strongest bite and loudest noise. If it is about climate that they are talking about its a hurricane, a tsunami or a mega earthquake of the century. And we cannot stop getting hooked to watch the documentary to identify the mistery. And sometime the story that they dramatise not even there! I would feel like cheated.

Monuments : https://unsplash.com/@ancientwanderer

Nothing is about normal.

Did you notice that nothing is ever about normal things? Its not about normal waves, normal weather which is there 360 out of 365 days. Nobody talks about an average human being. And I can say this is the life of vast majority of humans on the planet. But I rarely see a documentary on a daily paid workers life. True account. Maybe it is not interesting, when it is not in the either side of the spectrum. Nobody would raise their eyebrows when numbers are not more than eight figures long or atlease beyond few decimal points of zeros. So I need you to observe when these documentaries creators do play with your feelings. When watching a documentary you are not only a spectator, but you are a victim to the narrator of the story. It is what happens in your brain physically or chemically which makes you a victim of information. I am not saying you should stop watching them, or you cannot learn anything from them. It is the exact opposite. I am showing you how to make it an opportunity to practise your mindfulness while watching these. 

Watching walruses- a documentary in mindfulness

This article has perfect timing, as I was watching frozen planet by Sir David Attenborough. Started smooth, normal hunting of polar bears, and orcas. And at the end of the program, a gathering of walruses shown. And they were in thousands in a small island, packed due to lack of ice caused by global warming. And some of them climb 100 meter high rocks for space and eventually fall to their own death in dozens. And somehow it caused me to think that I am responsible for their deaths. What happened? I was wondering it is only part of the story.

Walrus: https://unsplash.com/@francesco_ungaro

We have seen mass extinctions of animals in planet earth history. What about dinosaurs. They perished on earth In a matter of years, totally wiped out. Leaving only cockroaches to carry on life. What about ice age? When polar bears flourish, other animals would freeze to death. No humans were responsible for that! Wildfires? Hurricanes? Landslides? It seem for vast majority of deaths in nature, humans or you are not responsible.

We can think about global warming in some other ways. I am not sure about you but not a single atom in my body is artificial. They all are natural. Just like every animal in the planet I posess a weak body, like every dictator. So I create a shelter, and help all others in fulfilling my selfish need for survival, which was planted in me as morals by the nature. Just like a bunch of crows. So whatever I have done for the global warming last year is just natural. Of course that may be our own apocalyptic ending. Yet it is natural right?

Can you see? There is an opposite argument for everything we hear, every truth that they show us. Even for a mathamatical question so obvious like answer to 1+1. These conter arguments are not obvious at first, but it teaches important lesson, to question everything that we see for ourselves. And you would be suprised how much absurdity is there in your everyday boring life. And that is how mindfulness makes a documentary more interesting to watch.

What documentary have you watched lately?