We are in an insatiably gladiatorial world!

If you are too young to have seen the film Spartacus, you may at least have seen the more recent gladiator movie starring Russel Crowe and aptly named Gladiator?

That concept of a ruling elite satisfying the baying and restless mob (i.e. society) with blood sports that utilise unfortunate commoners like themselves (albeit in the unfortunate circumstance of being on bondage), who have to fight to the death, in front of their peers as a means of entertainment, sounds crude and historic, but that is indeed exactly where we are today!

The internet was created with good intentions but the minute the money-making potential became obvious, everything else is just collateral damage. That seems to be the overriding pattern for everything in today’s world. You read about online trolls and a bunch of their victims committing suicide; we click on the next news and 2 minutes later, that news is already on page 30 and is old news.

Everything is now a money-maker. It is all about driving online traffic to a website, a blog, a u-tube page or an online post with someone pulling the strings behind the scenes and billionaires being declared on a weekly basis, while we all ignore the solid line of collateral damage building up.

25 years ago, if you picked up a newspaper and the front page has a report of 2 people killed in a robbery, the reader will be appalled and spend several minutes reading the article over and over again, feeling pain for the families and friends of the victims etc. Today, people click on the internet and there’s a report on 57,000 dead in the UK from Covid-19 and as you read that, you also have your iPhone on another article on how to make bread and a third article on your iPad with cat jokes. And the news keeps coming……

Publishers are under pressure to keep on churning out one sensational headline after the other. Recently in the UK, two teenage footballers purchased homes for their mothers, one was made out to be a wasteful idiot who hasn’t even achieved footballing glory yet, but is splashing out on a house for his mother, while the other chap was made out to be such a caring young man who cares so much for his family. An individual (Raheem Sterling) picked up both articles and asked the UK public to guess which of the two chaps is white?

The public have grown totally indifferent to human suffering; not that society was ever any different nor was there ever a past generation that was caring, tolerant, peaceful and strove to create global equality and societal harmony, but the amplified thirst for any kind of satisfaction, without a second’s thought for the implications, is defining now at an all-time high!

A UK television personality (Caroline Flack) recently committed suicide. She had been in an altercation with her boyfriend whom she allegedly suspected of being unfaithful and she struck him in his sleep. The police were called and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided to prosecute her. Now, whether or not she deserved to be prosecuted or the fact that she took her own life, fact of the matter is that the young lady is no longer with us and it is a life lost. Online trolls persecuted her endlessly and even after her death. The CPS were clearly correct in prosecuting her and her suicide was tragic, but will society learn?

We see bodies of refugees and asylum seekers floating in the ocean and that hS somehow become a comfortable image that online trolls still willingly and freely disparage! Regardless of whether or not these are economic migrants or genuine refugees, they are human beings for goodness sake!

Those profiting from social media must be made responsible of coming up with technology that can eliminate online abuse, trolling or misuse of the internet. There ought to be a 30 second rule for anything offensive to be removed. But some will argue that nobody can determine what is deemed offensive or not. Well, that is where human decency has to come into it. There’s a great deal of bad behaviour not covered by law or not deemed criminal, society (decent society) find the means to address.

You read about ethical products but it is like descending into a bottomless pit! Few decades back there was the emphasis on conflict diamonds for a short period of time. Disarmament for a short period of time – quickly replaced with “guns don’t kill, people do” – yes, but perhaps making weapons of mass destruction could allow people to mass destruct? And to the more mundane matter of inhumane conditions for workers producing cheap products that we all want to buy, cheap food etc. Climate change campaigners voicing support for non-fossil fuel engines but when a documentary showing children forced down cobalt mine shafts in Africa, to supply non-fossil industries, the world looked the other way and very little was said about that.

What is achievable? What is practical? What is hypocritical? It is not for me to say, as I honestly do not know. It is easy for some to challenge ownership of guns in countries like America and for those selling them to duck behind the constitution, but we are all taxpayers and governments are highly unlikely to stop making and selling weapons and as such, we are all arms traders? There is also, a very murky world out there: it is easy to sit in the comfort of our homes and complain about the cost of things like nuclear deterrence, but is it possible to have a safe world without such deterrence?

Avoiding purchasing products from one brand in favour on one we deem to be more ethical, not knowing both are owned by the same organisation anyway (through share ownership etc.)…..

It is indeed a bottomless pit!

Who is right? Who is wrong?

One thing is certain: we are in an insatiably gladiatorial world! Humanity is lost without empathy! We can change…..

Less about who is right and who’s wrong. We just need some empathy and common sense…