Back in the 70’s, a contemporary Christian artist had a song entitled “Why should the devil have all the good music?” To prevent scaring everyone ala Santorum, I’ll be kind enough to remove the “d” and ask, “Why does evil get so much press coverage? Why do we allow it to warp our view of life when we know that the bad is the not the norm?”
Earlier this week, a 60’s music “legend” passed away at a hospital about a mile from my home. Although Davy Jones was no Mick Jagger, the group he was a part of sold over 50 million albums. When I awakened the morning after his death, I did my usual perusing through the news channels and there was nothing, save for maybe a fifteen second mention of Mr. Jones’s passing. I understand that he was not Whitney Houston, but the contrast of the coverage really started me to think – why do we thrive for the dirt, why do we champion the evil in the world, why do we elevate the bad to such a high level of prominence when we know that we have many more good than bad events and good people outnumber the bad? I participate in a Member Created Community with MGMA, and I have to plead guilty to the same. I am a negative posting person most of the time, and need to challenge myself to seek to be a positive poster.
Our entertainment selections also have sunk to incredible lows. Popular TV shows like Breaking Bad and Sons of Anarchy are intriguing, but they concentrate on championing the lawbreakers, in many ways glorifying the life. News shows dig for dirt in every celebrity and the celebrities who escape their search for grime in their lives are usually not thought of highly. Think of Tim Tebow and Jeremy Lin. Just let either of these two have some sort of fall from grace and the cameras will crank up and the media will spill out the dirty laundry quicker than a college student coming home for the weekend.
Why do we have such an appetite for the bad, the gruesome, the evil and why does it “sell?” I have a few thoughts as to why we gravitate to the stories that we know better than to attach to. I think a big reason that there is such a concentration on the bad is that we have definitely created the market for it by allowing it to happen as a society. Whether you use the analogy of boiling a frog or the vulture that lights on an ice float to get a taste of a meal, only to realize that he is frozen to his meal, we have seen a steady increase of filth, dirt, and gore invade our homes through many means. Our silence is deafening and as a result, we have quietly voted for what we have in abundance. We have been “snowed” by what the media preaches as progress to regress as a society to see an endless parade of mess such as the human debris called reality shows.
Another reason I think that “crap is king” is that we can gain a lot of self worth by realizing that we are not as bad as others that we see committing all sorts of evil to their others. We can see the drug addict and say with glass in hand, “Wow, I’d never get addicted to stuff like that.” We can see man’s inhumanity to their neighbor and feel good that we pay a lot of taxes and give food, shelter and healthcare to the needy - Hey, we do our part! We can see bad people and parents do unspeakable things to their children and think that our berating and lack of attention to our family is not so bad after all.
The bad is championed and tolerated by us because life is easier if we do not confront things. We think, “So what if society goes to hell in a hand basket, me and mine are alright.” I would like for you to try something sometime. Get on the second or third rung of a ladder and get a friend or family member to stand close to the ladder. See if it is easier for you to pull them up on the ladder or if it is easier for them to pull you off of the ladder. We can more easily be pulled down than we can pull others up. It might be easier to let stuff slide than it is to stand up to it, but the pain you might undergo may be the sacrifice that you make to change the direction of things.
Life goes on for sure, and I still believe that the good in people and this world outweighs the fringe of bad and evil that gets all the coverage. I would encourage all of us, including a big ME to speak up and take a stand where it matters. Let the world know that there is still much more good than bad to be shared.
I welcome comments as to why others think we are getting the less than desirable when it comes to our media, society and entertainment.