Why do so many people get in
line hours and hours before the stores open on Black Friday, as well as some
other things like the recent crowed that rushed out of an football stadium, tearing
down the goal post and hurting thirteen who could not get out of the way when
they fell. The answer as to why people
behave like this has little to do with the fact that there is a good deal to be
had, or that their team just won.
That we have turned into a nation
of voyeurs has! I understand that less than
one percent of us serve in the military.
Fewer yet play professional sports.
Most of us do not drive race cars, race a horse, or act in a movie. What we do is watch, we watch other do these
things. We are the great audience, we
applaud, moan, grown, and cheer, but we do not act. I
do not mean to suggest that our tendency for
voyeurism is any greater today is any greater than it was in the past,
just that our opportunity are much greater.
In the past the carnivals and medicine shows were an opportunity to
escape from the harshness of a world in which if you had to work from sunrise
to sunset.
Today when those who go and
camp out to get a good seat at a concert they are participating, being part of
the show, but not escaping from drudgery.
This can be said of those who get up early, or stay in front of the
stores all night for Black Friday, they are not the audience. They are out among them, taking their
chances, or, playing the game, if you will.
This attitude had also led to the recent innovation of the flash mob as
well.
They know that they may get
hurt, that they will have to deal with the crazy, and some will go a little
crazy themselves. Now consider the Oklahoma State fans that jumped, ran and pushed their way
onto the field and pulled down the goal posts.
Was it joy that led them to do it, or was it the chance to be part of
the show? I maintain that it was the
latter. Being part of the show though
diverts into two paths: the differences between going to a public hanging as a
spectator, and being the member of a lynch mob, as the people who pulled the
goal post down transmogrified.
As a people we come from people who
were doer not watchers. We abandoned
safety and security to venture into the unknown. We fought England to be free, and we fought
ourselves to free the slaves. We went to
Europe twice to keep the world free.
These all were events in which large numbers of us were involved, not
just one percent.
And now what do we do? We work; we watch TV and go to movies and
plays. We watch races and games. We have become the great audience, and pay
dearly to be entertained. Why do you
suspect that actors and sports stars get so much money? They feed out appetite that is why. But while they appease our craving for
excitement their fare is unfulfilling to many of us, and out craving must be
satisfied elsewhere.
Some of us take up extreme activities
such as scuba diving, sky divine, Martial Arts, horsemanship, reenactments, or
any of a multitude of other activities in which we are the actors instead of just
the audience. But then some of us just
go shopping or rush out on a football field pushing and shoving.
Now consider the Occupy Wall Street and
the Tea Parties and how they have chosen to act out. Look at the flash mobs, some are formed to
dance or to sing, other to raid a store and steal what they can. As in all things there are choices, but you
reach a point in a mob where you have no choice and you lose your will to the
mob's will. Why some large groups never
turn into mobs, as the Tea Party, while other groups like the OWL seems to
embrace it?
I do not know the answer; I just know
that we have choices.
The point is not the voyeurism, but the
attempt to escape from it by being an actor instead of the audience. The people in the past who went to the public
floggings, hangings, etc. we’re escaping from mind numbing labor, not a problem
that many of us have today. No, I do not mean to suggest that the
tendency for voyeurism is any greater today is any greater than it was in the
past. In the past the carnivals and
medicine shows were an opportunity to escape from the harshness of a world in
which if you had to work from sunrise to sunset. And all through history you either were a
warrior or your will was bent to their will which was the will of their
Lord.
Entertainment was a rare thing
through most of history for most of the people with the exception of the Greek
theaters, the Roman Coliseums, and those were not for everyone, just the select
few. The Roman citizens were placated
with their entertainment and bread for their vote (now that does sound like
some of what is going on now, minus the Gladiators, i.e., Bread and Circus. What I am talking about is the differences
between going to a public hanging as a spectator, and being the member of a
lynch mob, as the people who pulled the goal post down were.
Allegorically in the TV miniseries, The
Pillars of the Earth, based on a novel by Ken Follett, at the end the Archbishop
of Canterbury had his pet sheriff arrest Jack in order to stop the construction
of Philip's cathedral. He holds a show
trial in which the people are invited as an audience to the dispensation of
justice. But his duplicity in the
sinking of the sinking of the White Ship is brought to light by the Witch, and
the crowd turned from being an audience to being actors, and the Sheriff is
hanged in his own noose. As well the
Archbishop fulfills the Witch’s prophecy of climbing up high only to fall. And
falls to his death seeking his escape from the audience that had turned into actors.
Now I am not trying to say that the
people who push and shove, pepper spray, and walk over other people to get a
good deal have the same high motives as did the people in Kingsbridge had when
they go from being spectators to participant, what I am saying is that there is
a strong drive in up to participate that is pent up, and every now and then
something comes along that drives us from being spectators to being actors in
the event playing out before us, that is why I ended the peace with the
question about the OWL.
