But we all have the tendency to become numb to the noise that follows us in everyday life.

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We become numb to the day-to-day crises, the slow-moving tragedies of children without food and men without shelter and families without health care.

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And so at some point, patients become numb to the messages, and they do become fatalistic because they feel like it doesn't really matter what I do, because it's going to be wrong in a week.

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Traders and investors have become mostly numb to the ongoing squabbling by U.S. politicians.

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"My hands went numb thinking about its potential to become cheap and plentiful enough to affect the lives of everyone on the planet, " he says.

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