Let’s discuss the Ray Rice story from the standpoint of the
victims. If this were a beginning
journalism class, we might start with the classic 5 W’s and an H.
·
Who are the victims? It’s hard to find any others than the couple
themselves, two extremely young and otherwise apparently exemplary people who
got in a fight in a public space.
Because of this, they have both been stripped of job, career, future
prospects, and cast into the darkness of a future of perpetual underemployment or
worse.
·
What was the crime? Nobody filed charges. Nobody was permanently hurt. If this were two male friends fighting, two
female friends fighting, even a drunken couple mixing it up in a bar, nothing
more would have happened. This was not an
unprovoked lashing out, but the culmination of a lover’s spat. This was not even part of a pattern of
escalating abuse, but a momentary flare that probably could be handled easily
with counseling _ at least if our social professions are not lying to us all
the time.
·
Why is there so much outrage? Obviously, most of it is fueled by envy _ he
is making too much money, the NFL is too rich and arrogant. More comes from the righteousness of true
believers, who see here a set of avatars they can burn at the stake for the crimes
of society at general. The actual victim
does not count, just another dumb woman girlfriend, she is a symbol. And she would have had too much money, too.
·
When did the line to personal issues completely
disappear? Not since the days of Henry
Ford and his house-invading spies have employers been so able _ even required _
to fire able workers for private acts.
These are the tactics of totalitarianism, but more than that they are
the tactics of big business keeping employees under their thumb (Henry Ford did
everything for the “employee’s own good” also.)
·
Where is our conscience? Everyone who is yammering away casting stones
has presumably never sinned. Just like
the religious fanatics who impose Sharia law.
But civilized people are supposed to understand that life is
complicated, and temper their own sucker punches.
·
How did we get this way? Polarized factions invoke saintly unblemished
heroes who never existed. The bible is
great literature precisely because all its characters _ including God _ have
flaws. Believing in perfection leads
only to cults of liars and frauds: Stalin, Mao, Dear Leader.
Apparently the idea of redemption, forgiveness, and
possibility of change is only applied selectively and randomly. Hardened criminals may yet be reformed, criminal
politicians given another chance, but young lovers are beyond the pale.
Once upon a time it was at least a goal of responsible journalism
to keep these issues in mind, and to try to treat them with attention to
nuance, complication, contradiction, and the essential humanity of whatever had
occurred. I weep at what we as a culture
have lost.
