People Like This Stuff?
I used to listen to a morning sports talk show, called Mike and Mike. Good guys, knowledgeable about sports...but also funny and quirky and deft. I enjoyed them very much; they made my (looooong) drive into work bearable, if not bareable. This being Cleveland, of course, they were dropped by the local radio station and replaced with a couple of sneering, snide, sarcastic, superior jackasses who live to mock.
What is it with people today (and GOD do I sound like an old fart) that they are drawn to reveling in bullying and self-congratulatory nit-picking? Is our collective self-esteem so sadly low that we can only feel okay about ourselves if others are, somehow, identified as lesser beings? Whatever happened to "there but for the grace of God", so forth? Whatever happened to the power of compassion? When did empathy become seen as the refuge of the weak?
The sports geeks this morning were talking about two guys who had gotten into a fight over a football game -- after (duh!) drinking a wee bit....and one guy ended up shooting the other guy (his best friend) and killing him. Now, I don't have too huge a problem with identifying these tools as pretty stupid, although I'm not sure how we were edified by hearing about it. But the morning geeks told the story, and then managed to laugh and spin joke after joke about it.
This was a man. A husband, father, brother. He left behind children. I'm don't see how the actual human lives that were torn apart by this can be fodder for anyone's humor -- outside of the 5th circle of Hell. They not only laughed about the guys, they specifically mentioned the children, and said the children would be better off without this guy.
They, in effect, cheered this murder as a good thing.
I'm not sure what chills me more -- the fact that "entertainers" can and do feed off this bottom; or the host of follow-up calls they broadcast, each laughing and mocking more.
Maybe, I dunno, I've become a weenie. Maybe life is meant to be spent in a vacuum, not caring about anyone else save as rocks to be stepped on to lift oneself up.
posted by Ted @ 9:07 AM
Here there be 3 comments
3 Comments:
I don't think you're a weenie.
That doesn't help, does it...and I really shouldn't be making silly remarks about such a serious subject.
Why do people laugh at others misfortunes?
Why do people put others one step down, in order to feel one step up?
Why do people tell sick jokes about death and paedophiles and mother-in-laws, who quite frankly, are really nice people? (The mother-in laws, obviously.)
Oh I don't know. It's a sick, sick world. I think we're all guilty of something...
Follow-up:
I wrote a note to the local radio station that carries the show (it's a nationally syndicated show). The station manager forwarded my note to the corporate offices, and the actual host of the show took the time to write me a personal note of apology for having offended me.
I thought that was pretty big of him. I responded back that while we could agree to disagree about the tenor of his show, I respected his integrity in taking the time to write me.
I still find the whole thing indicative of something disturbing in us, but I have to give him credit, at least, for being man enough to dialogue with me.
And, since I'm sitting here typing this in my boxers, p'raps I'm not exactly whatchacallya innocent, either.
I think, maybe, that it was far easier for him to apologise, than to not. After all...had you decided to take it further, his name could have been mud. He did the right thing for his career, and it's impossible to say if he was genuinely sorry, or if he was just trying to save his ass and have an easy life.
I guess these particular hosts have an obligation. Their audience tune in and probably expect some sick, derogatory comments about whatever is going on in the world. I myself, don't find it funny, but I know others who do and think I should lighten up. I don't think I can do that.
Having said that, I'm still struggling to forgive myself for laughing at a really sick joke a few years ago. It was funny. So funny. But so, so wrong.
I wish the world was a nicer place, but it isn't. It's a shame. So I'll laugh at what's acceptable, and get assy at what's not, and hope I don't lose too many friends in the process. Having your own opinion and being prepared to voice it, is a wonderfully courageous thing to do.
Well done. I admire you. x
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