People are apparently caring enough to get involved in protesting about these things, but what about closer to home? How do we deal with violence and aggression? There is something totally shocking in witnessing acts of violence, but we seem to shield ourselves from our true feeling.
Is
television the culprit for this? We see so much violence on a variety of programmes.
Cartoons which are supposed to make us laugh are the worst perpetrators. How
many times does Tom swat Jerry to a pulp and Jerry just fills out again, jumps
up and takes revenge, blowing Tom’s head off! Yes, we all know cartoons
aren’t real life, and we all know the difference between fact and fiction.
But how much does the behaviour of others rub off onto ourselves?
I often watch soaps on TV and think, “Stroppy madam, I hope she gets her come-uppance. Someone ought to give her a slap!” Sometimes we watch a soap and come to hate a character so much, we can’t wait for them to be ‘killed off’.
But back to real life. We have all seen the horrific photos of victims of crime. The old lady with black, blue and yellow bruises covering her face, just because some coward wanted a bit of easy money. Men with broken arms because they dared to try to protect their property against some chancer trying to steal it. Even children are badly beaten for their dinner money or bus fares.
What on earth is going on in our world? There seems to be a pervading attitude of “I want, so I will have” and hang the consequences to anyone else.
Do the thugs, muggers, cowards who commit these crimes never think how they would feel if they were the victim? Do they never think of the lasting effect their actions have on the victim? Do they ever think of anyone apart from themselves? Or do they really believe in their hearts (if they have one) that they are entitled to do as they wish and somehow pass the blame on to the victim?
Once again I ask, where is this caring society? Maybe they are all on demonstrations or protest marches, which I believe only receive media coverage in case tempers fray and things escalate into violence.
But to try to balance things up and end on a happier note, there are the numerous good works, kind deeds and caring actions that don’t get reported, maybe because newspaper chiefs believe good news doesn’t sell newspapers.
Does this mean we are all bloodthirsty ghouls, who enjoy
reading about the misfortunes of others? Oops.
