Sunday, October 15, 2006

A Lesson on Society

….from an unlikely source: the boob tube….

Who would have thought that a succinct statement about our society could come from a popular television program? I am a fan of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigations" . The original series which takes place in Las Vegas, not the NY or Miami variety.

I record it on my DVR in order to breeze through annoying commercials. Thursday's (October 12) show was a good episode (“Fannysmacking”) as all of them tend to be. However, this one struck me as extremely powerful. The ending made me say “Wow!” That a popular television program would make this statement, floored me.

Long story short, a gang of thugs spent their time assaulting tourists in Vegas. One of the CSI investigators, out on his own, stumbled upon these thugs and stopped them from killing another victim. He, in turn, was beaten. Eventually the thugs were taken down by the team. The dialog from the last 3 minutes of the show was profound.

In the locker room, the investigators were talking about the thugs, only one of which was over 18; the remainder underage, the youngest of which was 14. Ensuing discussion dealt with where the parents were, who was raising the kids, what caused these kids to beat up people for entertainment, etc. “Sara” commented that it sounded as though the other investigators were exonerating the kids because of bad homes, drugs. Essentially, she said the kids knew right from wrong.

Enter “Gil Grissom” and his comment, “The truth is, a moral compass can only point you in the right direction. It can’t make you go there. Our culture preaches that you shouldn’t be ashamed of anything you do anymore. And unfortunately, this city is built on the principle that there’s no such thing as guilt. Do whatever you want; we won’t tell. So without a conscience there’s nothing to stop you from killing someone and evidently you don’t even have to feel bad about it.”

What a statement of our times. How often have we heard about horrors in a person’s past which caused him to do one thing or another? You see it day in, day out. From the media, politicians, social groups; they celebrate “victimhood”. We are constantly barraged with the idea that we are not accountable for our actions.

Poor serial rapist, he was abused as a child and it caused him to rape these people. Poor pedophile, he was molested by a minister, so he molested kids. Poor drunk, he came from an alcoholic home, so it really wasn’t his fault he killed someone while driving. For the uneducated, poor, downtrodden person, killing someone for their vehicle rims really isn’t his fault. Society has not given him the tools to succeed, so it’s our fault he is a murderer.

Following that path, it is a wonder that we survive as a society. Maybe we should all succumb to peril that is victimhood. Apparently it grants absolution from personal accountability.

2 comments:

In Russet Shadows said...

Pretty amazing that made it into the script and moreover, that it stayed there. I doubt that Hollyweird will wake up anytime soon, but it's nice to see these flickers of hope now and again.

I always thought that the whole "woe is me" act was just an outgrowth of the whole 60's counterculture. Those folks broke all sorts of moral codes and now they're in charge of the culture, so of course there's excuses for anything and everything under the sun.

The penduluem is swinging back around. It's just starting to pick up steam. Did you see that South Park lampooned the 9-11 conspiracy fruitcakes?

nanc said...

spot on, indie!

we've lost our ability to blush and NOTHING surprises us anymore.

we don't watch network television much and i really don't want to get caught up in a series such as this. the last time i did was "nypd blue". somehow the language AND situations have gotten worse on television.