Having reached the ripe old age of 52 (soon to be 53) not much surprises me anymore about the human condition, but I believe it’s just reached an all-time low. As I have matured I am very careful what I allow myself to watch on television or social media because once you see something it is not easy to ‘unsee’ and there are just somethings you don’t want to have to try and ‘unsee’.
Over the weekend I was watching President Donald J Trump and his beautiful first lady dance to Josh Weather singing ‘I will always love you’ at the Armed Services Ball after the inauguration and I found it particularly moving. (You can watch the video here.) If you don’t find it moving then perhaps you might like to just have a quick check of your pulse….and it has nothing to do with politics; and no, I don’t care that they can’t dance either. To me it was, in my deluded view of the world it would seem, a husband and wife, two life partners, enjoying their big day. I imagined how I would feel at that moment if it were my husband and me. I confess I get a little emotional about these things. I like to see the loveliness of this world whenever I can and I am an optimist; and I think it’s true that the older I get the more optimistic I have allowed myself to become.
After I had finished watching that little piece of loveliness on Youtube I clicked on a video below it in the suggested playing list and viewed Madonna and Ashley Judd spitting out venom, ugliness and filth in front of hundreds of thousands of people including children and I was horrified….no I was mortified…..and not just at the filthy and hateful content of their venom, but to see young children in the crowd. In fact there were families there! On what basis or occasion was that ever ok? If we don’t care, nurture and protect our children then who will? The parents who took their children to that event need to rethink their insight as parents and I don’t give a dam about their politics either. If you as an adult feel the need to fill your life up with ugliness, venom and hatred that even you yourself will never ‘unsee’ then leave your children out of it. It’s not their business, and they trust you as their parents to know that and make the right decisions that are in their best interests.
With the advance in social media, television and the content of a lot of mainstream media our children are being quickly desensitised….and we too are being desensitised…..to degrading and despicable and violent behaviours committed by clueless and self-absorbed adults. Parenting values are never to be determined by your political ideation. I don’t care whether you’re a liberal or a conservative…nothing about this was or is ok and we should all, as parents, be a little scared about this.
What are we teaching our children by taking them to an event such as this or allowing them to watch it on social media so they can watch as their parents, or other adults like the Madonnas or Ashley Judds of this world behaving in this way? Perhaps we are telling them that it’s ok to make degrading insults that suggest a father has a sexual attraction to his daughter or maybe that when they don’t agree with someone’s religious or political views or ideas they can insult them in the ugliest way possible, assault them viciously or perhaps that it is ok to blow up a building or violently take retribution to force their views on them. Sound familiar? Isn’t that exactly what ISIS and other like terrorist groups do? Mmmmm
