"Then the little boy falls off the horse and breaks his leg,
and the villagers all say 'How terrible.' The Zen Master says, 'We'll see.'"*
Recent weeks' allegations of sexual impropriety have arrived with such mind-numbing regularity it's risky to open a news link for fear of how the next mess presents. Penn State was perhaps the first volley, followed by Syracuse. On the heels of both, a longtime and highly respected retired sheriff of Arapahoe County (CO) is accused of trading meth for sex. What's next?
Yesterday, a Fox News item about sexual exploitation of children in Hollywood splashed and bannered across their web site - big news. Today, I had to go hunt for the story to link it. There seem two obvious trends, both highly disturbing. First, each case was an "open secret" among people who knew the perps well. Second, after the shock and disgust wore off...nothing.
Social scientists claim we are a society with a notoriously short attention span. We react to stimuli, grumble that "somebody" should do "something," and go back to...I dunno, whatever it was that had caught our momentary attention. Or not.
In the meantime, who speaks loud and long and often for the victims - not just those who are, but those who will be? When we hear about two boys being passed around in Hollywood - do we vow to find the slimeballs involved, put them in jail and boycott their films? Of course not. THAT would be blacklisting, or too hard, or a person is innocent until proven guilty - blah blah blah. The accused (or their enablers) peel off a few bucks of go away money, there is some kind of come to Jesus meeting that includes the words "never again" and life goes on. In the meantime....
Bringing to light these gruesome facts can only have a societal benefit when we - us, people who feed the money machine - turn off the spiget for assholes who say one thing to our faces and do something behind our backs.
Let's be hypothetical, since nothing is certain at this point. Let's say - the assistant coaches at both Penn State and Syracuse knew what was going on and turned a blind eye (so long as there was nothing public, nothing to disgrace their programs). Then the result to them is - no TV, no playoffs. No spectators at the games. Nothing. No income at all for the programs. Would the sports programs fold at those schools? Hell yes. So what. The players would find new homes.
A movie director sexually exploits the kids performing for him? No one - NO ONE - goes to another movie he directs. Ever. Harsh? Of course it is. Warranted? Damn right.
Denial is not a river in Egypt, it's what we practice every day so life (as we think we want it) goes on. As long as we personally either get some reward or suffer only a managable hardship, it's okay. Nothing changes. Or, does it?
We'll see.
*Gust Avrokados (Philip Seymor Hoffman), Charlie Wilson's War, 2007
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