July 23, 2025
Last week there was a video that, like so many other
videos before it, has gone viral online. Moreover, it actually showed up as an
item on the evening news. The video-captured moment took place at a concert—the
band that was in concert was Cold Play. The venue was using the so-called
“kiss-cam”, a camera that will focus in on a couple (generally), or sometimes a
cute child or some famous person in the audience, and that image goes up on the
same very big video screen where the entire audience can also see sports replays,
or in this case, the concert itself.
I guess this camera got its nick name because so often
the camera operator found and focused on a couple kissing. More than one time,
in Atlanta Georgia and at different sporting events, the camera operator found
former President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn, sitting side by side,
their focus on the game…and then on the image of themselves on the screen. Now
the tradition is, apparently, that if you’re not kissing when you see your
image up on the video screen, you’re expected to do so, in the interest of
being a good sport.
The Carters, as I recall, usually obliged with just
the sweetest kisses—as they were the ultimate good sports.
Now the incident I’m writing about that happened last
week, well, that was the moment we found out that being a good sport only goes so
far—the couple being spotlighted is expected to perform for any and all who are
watching.
You know, I understand that cameras are everywhere,
these days. And I understand that it’s like a game. Sitting in an arena or
auditorium and eagerly hoping, fearing, wondering will that camera show me? I
get it.
I also have a very strong moral thread that does not
condone cheating, in any way, shape, or form. Neither do I agree with lying, or
any number of acts people commit that are considered sins, crimes, or simply
acts of poor taste or lackluster upbringing.
But honestly, when I first saw that video that has
gone viral, the video of a man and a woman enjoying a concert, together, in the
moment…his arms around her from behind, her arms over his….and then their
reaction to seeing themselves on the screen? Their shock, their mortification,
the way they immediately tried to hide themselves…..I felt ashamed—of myself
and the rest of us that for even a moment experienced some sort of vicarious–or
maybe that should be vicious—thrill.
Now, to be fair and lest anyone think I’m blaming the
camera operator, one can wonder if there would have been a viral moment at all had
the couple not so publicly shown their guilt. On the other hand, it could also be
argued that the fact that they felt guilt and reacted in the way they did might
speak to their not being used to doing that which they shouldn’t do.
Strictly speaking and in the eyes of God, that couple
never should have been together in a romantic way at all as at least one of
them was married to someone else.
But in the wake of the bruhaha and the fallout for the
man (he lost his job) I need to ask a few simple but basic questions: Have we
become a society of no quarter given? Have we become a people who seek pleasure
through the embarrassment of others? Is this a case of mass schadenfreude? Are
our lives so bereft of meaning and substance that we grab at any chance to lift
up others who’ve misstepped, and gleefully hold them up to public ridicule?
Yes, there are cameras everywhere and yes, I also get
the urge we all experience to snap a pic with our ever-present camera (cell
phone) when something catches our eye. And really, knowing all this, we each of
us do bear responsibility not to offer ourselves up that way.
I guess the principle I would put forth with this
essay, and it applies to all of us, is this:
Just because you can do something doesn’t mean
that you should.
Over these past several months I have been watching as
those in whose hands power has been placed by the electorate have, rather than
dedicating themselves as public servants to make life better for everyone have
instead worked tirelessly as public overlords to render as much pain as they
can to as many as they can, and as quickly as they can. And the only people
they are trying to benefit are those who have less need for any kind of “ministering
unto” than all the rest of us combined.
We want them—those in charge—to change, to stop the
hurting, to stop the persecution. But maybe we’re looking at this all wrong.
Maybe, if we want things to change, then we must begin
to make changes within ourselves.
In the private sector and at public venues in this,
our capitalistic society, commerce is plied, and the law of supply and demand
reigns supreme.
Maybe it’s time for us to stop supplying careless
opportunities and to start demanding less cheap hits and more responsible
behavior, all the way around. It’s up to us to begin with ourselves, because in
this reality we live in, there are some true facts, and this is one:
If we don’t buy the candy, my friends, they will stop
making it.
Love,
Morgan
http://www.bookstrand.com/morgan-ashbury
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