I couldn't sleep, so I was flipping through channels. Some time ago, I had made a comment to some friends just how violent our entertainment had become. I had at the time been rather heavily medicated after having surgery and had woken up in the middle of the night. I couldn't get back to sleep, and ended up watching a documentary about gladiators in Ancient Rome. During a commercial, I changed the channel and landed on some wrestling match. And then I started thinking... and just had to write down what went through my mind. I made a semi-serious observation that the more downhill Roman society went, the more violent/bloody/exotic the entertainment spectacles became, and well, what did that say about our society?

Now I'm sitting here watching TV again because I can't sleep. I couldn't help but think back to that night of watching TV after my surgery. This time, because of my situation, I decided that I was going to look at the whole thing in a slightly different way. Instead of looking at entertainment as a reflection on society as a whole, what about looking at it in a smaller context? Like... in the context of interpersonal relationships? Marriage, family, friendships.

I wish I could say I was surprised at how much bullying, name-calling, violence and abuse was shown, often in the name of comedy. Maybe I was a little, but not much. It's a sad commentary on society.

Does this mean that things were necessarily better way back when there were no 4-letter words on TV? Of course not. But maybe it means that we should be more aware of the way people are treated in our entertainment. Maybe that's a step on the way to treating people better in reality. I don't know.

Labels: abuse, bullying, domestic violence, entertainment, relationships, survivor, television