It seems every time I turn on the Tele these days I cannot help but run across some person actually weeping before the Nation. It is almost a required prerequisite prior to going on any live show or news cast. We see it on talk shows and reality TV, we watch patiently as the young mother tries to catch her breath, and hold back the tears as she talks about welfare “Rights” and needed services. We take in the hard luck story of how little Joey’s Dad didn’t come to his ball game, relayed by his dear old’ Ma, as she testifies as to why her son had to murder three people in cold blood, with tears in her eyes. We hear the apologies and watch the waterworks as the convicted rapist apologizes to the family he destroyed.
With all this crying going on you would think that we as a society accept and condone such displays. Maybe we do……. I however, do not and cannot understand this.
I was brought up to believe that the shedding of tears is a private matter. If one feels grief that necessitates the release of saline then that person should do so away from the public eye. Dignity demands that those not known to the afflicted, avert their eyes and give said person a bit of time and room to compose themselves. To cry in public, unabashedly, is a display of weakness. It reflects badly on the individual and it disrespects ones family and name. I have no patience for the whiners and criers on television for they embody the moral decay of our culture and society as a whole.
I would no more let my emotions show in public, than I would cut my member off to prove my manhood. Both actions emasculate you. As a boy I would of course, cry at times, but in public? Never. It was unheard of, and if a child in our neighborhood was in pain or upset, off to the side they went, perhaps with a good friend or sibling to wipe away their tears. If a parent was about they would console the injured party, and admonish the rest of us heathens for our recklessness. However, to stand before your peers and weep with no attempt to hide said pain, or to try and compose oneself, would have been doom. Anyone foolish enough to do so would have been ridiculed and picked on mercilessly.
It comes down to acceptable forms of behavior.
As I stated above it was not, and still is not, acceptable to weep in public. We all know that grief is a private affair that is best kept on a personal familial level. Our parents taught us this most basic of lessons early on, perhaps when we first scraped our knee on the sidewalk, or were bitten by the neighbor’s dog. We also learn this as we go through life and we attend funerals. Ask yourself, when was the last time you attended a Funeral where there was wailing and keening? The survivors of a lost loved one have more of a right than anyone to weep yet, most compose themselves with dignity and strength through the ceremony. Even if they do not, generally the person so afflicted with sorrow, is quietly walked out of the public eye so they may not be stared at in their moment of despair. It is just right and proper is it not?
I’m guessing not, as evidenced by programs like Oprah, Montel, and even the News. I can almost predict at what point anyone of the hapless souls to be videotaped will begin to cry. You can see them working themselves up sitting before the show’s host and the entire world, waiting for the final question that breaks their composure. Unlike those who have suffered real tragedy such as lost comrades on the field of battle, or a Fireman perishing in the flames, These folks suffer the burden of greater sorrow over such topics as, being over weight, failing to pay their credit card debt, and my personal favorite their poor childhood. These morons cry so you the people of America can feel sympathy for them. The problem with that is that it is wasted effort. Why should I allow some 300 lb person with no self control, to attempt to high jack my emotions so that they can simply feel better about themselves? Piss on em, if they really wanted to feel better about themselves then they would get up off arse and go work in the yard, stop whining and crying.
It is almost as if the whole thing is an act. But I don’t think so, for it happens far too often for all of the various incidents to be staged. No, it has become acceptable to demean ones self in public, in fact, it almost required.
Being “Old fashioned”, as I am oft times described, I cannot but cringe and growl at the lack of self respect shown on the “Boob Tube” everyday. I am sickened and agitated every time some man is interviewed for the news and he cries tears as he explains that his Da hit him. SO WHAT? Every person in my neighborhood got the belt when they were out of line, you don’t see us all crying about it do you? The producers, I suppose, want the viewers to “Feel” something for their subject. In that they have been successful for I have much feeling for them indeed, but I’m betting is not the feeling’s they were looking for.
Essentially what I am saying is that, we as a society have allowed this kind of behavior to become acceptable. In so doing we undermine the strength of not only the individual but society as a whole. It saddens me that we have actually come to this.
Slainte’
Blighter
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