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When Human Misery Becomes Entertainment
NMB, Florida November 28, 2001 A.H. Schectman
THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on Issues, Ideas and Reflections on the Times. Published Now and
Then. Opinions Pro or Con Are Welcome.
WHEN HUMAN MISERY BECOMES ENTERTAINMENT
Now, I don't just mean the five or six TV "court" shows. I don't mean the
kind of thing the talk hosts, particularly the rabid conservative ones, do.
And, I really don't mean showing the bodies piling up in Afghanistan. What
I am directing this essay towards is the human occupation with voyeurism.
We just love to listen in the apartment next door when the battling family
members destroy the peace. We like to listen into private conversations,
listen to phone calls and run to watch a house burn down or see cars crash.
But we are really fascinated by how we humans die.
When human misery becomes entertainment that tells us a great deal about
ourselves. For some reason, not being able to manage our check books, where
our car keys are and the messes we leave everywhere, we manage to keep a
sharp eye and ear out for what others are doing.
In the old days, and I don't mean when you or I were young, one of the most
popular entertainments before widespread literacy, telephones, radio and
movies and television, there were public executions. They were regular
shows. They were announced way in advance and folks who could manage it
tried to get gibbet-side seats. Or, if there was a beheading it was not a
private thing. There was a high raised platform so that the sea of people
waiting could see the blow that separated body parts.
One of the oldest and most terrible of executions was the one used by the
Church. Apostates, heretics, backsliding converts and just plain anybody who
came afoul of the Church - such as the justly famous Joan of Arc - were
burned alive and as many people who could be squeezed into the public square
or the field outside the city came to gawk. That was entertainment!
The Church and the public law officials used to determine how and when a
person or persons were to die. Now it is the media moguls who cover human
misery like a blanket of perspiration and show it all. The interesting
thing is that we pay for it in one way or another and cannot wait to see the
next performance. Carol's Evaluation: 8 out of 10.
(CAROL IS NOW IN REHABILITATION IN THE SAME HOSPITAL. PLEASE - NO VISITORS
YET.
TELEPHONE IS O.K. NEW NUMBER IS: (305) 672 1111 EXTENSION 65109)
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