black-voices

 

John Hope Bryant

 

 

I am so tired of folks passing off abnormal and absolutely crazy behavior, as some strange, weirded-out strand of 'normal' in today's society.

Trading wives shows, baby's mamma shows, mistress shows, teenage mamma shows, teenage grandmama shows, and the most ignorant hip-hop variant of 'show-your-most-ignorant-self' themed shows. What's next, a 'candid-celebrities-in-their-own-personal-toilet' show? Okay, let me stop. I don't want to actually give one of these new-age producers an idea here.

Trading wives shows, baby's mamma shows, mistress shows, teenage mamma shows, teenage grandmama shows, and the most ignorant hip-hop variant of 'show-your-most-ignorant-self' themed shows. What's next, a 'candid-celebrities-in-their-own-personal-toilet' show? Okay, let me stop. I don't want to actually give one of these new-age producers an idea here.

And you know we have been here before, right? It was the Roman era, back when Rome was at their all time high as a global leader, and stadium-based gladiator shows, showing people getting killed, was the hottest ticket in town. The shows died, right before the dream called the Roman Empire did.

It's not a good sign for a society when their most fundamental virtues and values get negotiated away, daily and little by little, based on whose paying, and how much. When the feel good trumps the doing good. Or worse, when our integrity as individuals, community and a society, increasingly get rationalized away.

                                            "To rationalize, is to tell rational-lies."

Not so long ago, I was losing my mind because Diesel Jeans, a major global brand with prime real estate and a flagship store in downtown Manhattan, promoted a hugely successful campaign entitled Be Stupid.

That's right, the campaign was called Be Stupid, and it was beyond successful, beyond any mainstream measure. The company even won prestigious advertising awards. What the…?

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