Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Stealing a ball from a kid? Really?

There are thousands of theories on what's wrong with society today. We don't pay enough attention to education, there's too much reliance on technology, red vs. blue, north vs. south, us vs. them. My opinion?

They're all bullshit.

I can summarize what's wrong with all of us in one very short video.

It's really that simple. Baseball game. Foul ball. Kid's got it in her hands. The woman rips it away from the little girl, sits down and someone gives her a high five. There it is, right there. You want to know what our problem is? It's the ethic portrayed in that video..


  • I-Me-Mine. I got mine, to hell with you. It's all about me. Little kid's got something I want? Take it from her. I want it, so I deserve it. There's a selfish entitlement where people don't get the concept of doing the right thing. What's best for all of us isn't necessarily what you want. When you boil it down, the video portrays a blatant theft, but for the woman and her friend, Machiavelli is in charge. The ends justify the means, and as long as she has the baseball, how she acquired it is secondary (or irrelevant).
  • Inability to recognize (or understand) what's right: Was there not a little voice in that woman's head saying "this is a bad idea"? You're taking a baseball away from a small child. In what world is that remotely acceptable? Where does your head have to be to allow that to happen? 
  • Celebrating poor behavior. The selfish woman not only wasn't embarrassed, her friend wasn't either. How do I know? Did you see the high five? "Hey, you ripped a baseball away from a kid! Way to go!" This is the Jerry Springer portion of our culture. Do something abhorrent, and someone will think that was perfectly ok. 
The era of John Kennedy's "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" is dead. Bill Clinton's "There's nothing wrong with America that can't be fixed by what's right with America" is long gone.

We're now in the midst of the "steal a ball from a kid and crow about it." That's just fucking nauseating. I'm embarrassed to live in a world where the act shown in that video is possible. If you're not, why not?

3 comments:

Lissa said...

Once again, David, you're dead on.

rookster said...

Wow.

But I think you're wrong. Don't let the act of one idiot define your world just because it was caught on video.

This kind of thing has been happening forever, and I guarantee there are still plenty of good people in the world. Proof? You and I both would have returned the ball to that little girl, if we ever took it in the first place. And most (all?) of our friends would too.

James said...

Bet that wasn't in Texas. We'd have had a..."different" result ;-)