MATHEW EDLUND
Contributing Columnist
edlund@lbknews.com
“I can’t sleep!” people keep telling me – even if they’ve slept well their entire lives. “What I 
saw today was unbelievable, I can’t get it out of my mind!” Television images of fear, rage, intimidation and destruction seep into their dreams: of friends and neighbors screaming at them to leave their homes, workplaces blasted in fire, wars in the streets while their children fight far away.
Not since 9/11 has the clinical population I and others so complained of the inability to turn off and rest. Here is a partial explanation of why – and what to do to change it.
If It Bleeds It Leads
Humans are built to notice the needle in the haystack. We best commit to attention and memory the odd or bizarre – and the emotionally inciting.The Internet potentiates a visually charged era where extremity, virtual and non-virtual of virtually any form, sells and sells and sells. The extraordinary and previously unimaginable stokes and produces ratings, money, influence and power. This is the also media political arena right now.
So when Republican presidential aspirant Donald Trump was discovered tweeting the sayings of Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini, his response was “it got your attention, didn’t it?”
That was the whole idea.
Getting attention is the particular game of this political cycle, and if posturing violates civility and cultural norms the more attention is “won.” So if Trump says he would date a you