Kindness - a forgotten art?

I grew up watching 'Roasts' on TV with my family. Dean Martin, and a bunch of stars of his time and place would take turns poking fun at whoever the poor target for the evening was. You can still see some of these on YouTube and other places. But after going back and seeing some of them, I realized that they were like a Sunday School picnic compared to the bawdy, earthy, sexually explicit, foul-language-laced tirades that pass as comedy these days.

I did not watch the Golden Globe awards show last night (even though I now have cable, my relationship with TV continues to be very distant). I did, however, read an article announcing that Ricky Gervais, the host of last night's extravaganza, predicted that he would never be invited back again. He said he was going to pull out all the stops, and rip everyone to pieces and then some.

He seems to have done better than he hoped. I now actually don't want to see clips and videos from the event, because what I have read in the press is amazingly unkind. Not only to Ricky, but to the people he targeted. When people like Sandra Bullock sit stone-faced, not laughing at you as you poke 'fun' at people, you should get a clue.

So what is this doing in my blog today? Simple - we as a nation seem to have headed out into a new war. Society has begun to embrace the most bizarre, the most cruel, the most hateful, and called it fun. I'm concerned about it - and yet the general public seems to be loving it.

I remember a day when we could put on a show, call it a roast, and yet realize that the people involved obviously loved each other. Little nods, winks, waves of the hand and so forth would go back and forth, and "The Line" was not crossed. I remember Don Rickles poking fun at Johnny Carson about the fact that he had been married so many times, and that was flirting with disaster - yet there was enough respect in the way it was done to show that it was harmless teasing and the two men continued to work together and be friends.

Now, there are 'reality' shows in which the conversations have to be heavily censored, as tempers flare. In fact, it must be a major attraction to the viewing public in general because I have begun to hear more and more announcements like this: "Tempers flare and fists fly as the crew of "deadliest logging choppers" run up against the biggest deadline of their history..."

And in the background you see people throwing chairs, jumping off heavy equipment to go punch a co-worker, or you see two people with an inch between them as the entire yelling spree is censored via beeps and they can't even show you their mouths for fear that you will figure out which words are being used.

And this is reflective of our society today? I hope not, but I fear it might be.

Matthew 12:33 “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. 34 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. 35 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. 36 But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. 37 For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”