Saturday 1 October 2016

Gladiators

The people of ancient Rome organized gladiator fights
sometimes between two humans,
sometimes between humans and animals
It was disgusting.
One because of the sacrifice of human life for pleasure
Two because people paying to see it.
I think two is what was driving number one.
and two may be even the most disgusting part of the equation

Today we do not need to have gladiator fights.
Number two of the above paragraph is nowadays easily fulfilled by TV.
People still crave to see others suffering.
Accidents, disasters, we want to see the most cruel images
Media, TV, newspapers pay big money for these images
If we stop buying their services, and stop craving to see suffering,
the whole madness of the mass media focus what goes wrong may stop.

Any disaster, we get glued to our news channels
and that is why they thrive.
Every minute gone is a part of our life gone
If we spend 30 minutes watching the news
we waste each day so much of life

Oh, yes, "the news keeps us up to date".
Do you think you would lose touch with what happens in the world
if you do not look at the (most often very skewed) tv news on CCN or on your local channels?
I doubt it.

My suggestion.
Let us all instead of looking at the tv news
read for 30 minutes a day something that helps in our development.
In our knowledge, in personality building, in character building,...
Many truly inspiring texts are freely available on the internet


We do not need gladiator fights
We do not need the TV news either
Whenever we feel the need to see the cruel images coming from areas suffering natural disasters,
let us think back about how the ancient Romans paid and jeered for the suffering of gladiators and how disgusting we find it.

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One objection to the above point of view could be that these cruel image may awaken the compassion of our fellow humans and be at the origin of world wide campaigns of organized relief efforts.

As with most things, there are always two sides of the coin.

No matter what,
I truly hope and pray that our world moves soon and fast
away from the greed, envy, hatred and egotism,
towards a world of compassion and kindness
towards a world of love and humility
towards a world of reverence and respect
towards a world of sincerity and honesty
towards a world of selfless service


I wish you all a peaceful day,
filled with love and beauty.


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Note:
I have a sister blog with inspirational quotes
If you have time, please pay this little sis a short visit:
http://quotesfromhans.blogspot.my/
I have also a brother blog with small prayers for the big world
If you have time, please pay this little bro a short visit:
http://smallprayersforabigworld.blogspot.my/ 

1 comment:

  1. i have almost stopped watching tv for many years ever since i found that most of them HAVE TO exaggerate negativity as an easy way to get popularity.
    the same goes to facebook.
    as well as all the political talks. LOL.

    I strongly agree that there's always two sides of a coin.

    instead of sitting and let some strangers instill my mind with tension, fear, hatred, and emotional swing,
    i prefer to choose to just listen to something positive in the radio,
    to choose to read something positive, and those facts which will help me to solve problems.

    and i idealistically believe that we can always choose to be at the positive side of the coin.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    my parents are from fishing village.
    in local traditions,
    in a fisherman's boat, we're not allowed to say something negative,

    eg

    if there's a hole on the boat,
    they don't say "there's a hole!"
    instead, they say "this should be filled up/repaired"

    if there's something broken,
    they do not say "it's broken!",
    instead, they say "it should be fixed".

    some of us might think these are superstitious tradition.

    but, the fishermen are fighting with real danger everyday.
    they develop a tradition which do not allow them to have even a moment of negative thought.
    as the saying goes, 'danger is very real, but fear is a choice'.



    "life is like sailing. we can't direct the wind, but we can adjust the sail."
    -Thomas S. Monson -

    ReplyDelete

Do you agree, do you disagree, please comment...