Scandal

We live in strange times. Our com­mon sto­ries are more about every­day crimes than epic tales of a coun­try that has been an exper­i­ment about “all peo­ple being cre­ated equal.” Few dis­cuss nov­els. For the most part, it is the crime of the day that becomes the sto­ry­line around restau­rant tables. Polit­i­cal cor­rup­tion motifs are always fun. You can pretty well bet that the opin­ions will be many and var­ied. You can also wager the dis­cus­sion includes too few actual facts. We fear talk­ing about the deep­est parts of our heart’s desires, so we set­tle for the scan­dal of the day.
Scan­dal sells a lot of media time and space. We peo­ple have a mor­bid curios­ity. We use it to check our own capac­i­ties. Would we have done the same thing that per­son did given the same cir­cum­stances? Are we now dis­il­lu­sioned? Is this just another form of national or inter­na­tional gos­sip? Are we really mod­ern day Greeks telling tales of the gods (celebri­ties)?
Per­son­ally, I use these events as case stud­ies in human behav­ior. It is a dou­ble study: the event and human reac­tions to the event. It is like look­ing at some­one look­ing at them­selves in a mir­ror. A person’s actions grabs the atten­tion of the coun­try, then the coun­try dis­cusses it. The results are: con­dem­na­tion, ratio­nal­iza­tion, sup­port, aban­don­ment, cyn­i­cism, denial, jus­ti­fi­ca­tion, humor, ridicule, etc. The more com­plex the scan­dal, the greater the range of responses.
All scan­dals are not equal. Some are merely the dis­cov­ery of crimes com­mit­ted by offi­cials. Some are about the neigh­bors down the street. Hol­ly­wood usu­ally pro­duces one good story per week about its own peo­ple. Politi­cians are usu­ally ripe for the pick­ing too. Reli­gious scan­dals carry a par­tic­u­lar ele­ment of “What hyp­ocrites!” into the pub­lic arena.
Scan­dal is a two-edged sword. Being offended may pre­vent a per­son from some real insights. After all, the cross of Jesus was and is a scan­dal. God was exe­cuted as a crim­i­nal. That is enough intrigue to fill a lot of pages. It is just the sort of news that can unnerve the most resilient. Oh, and here are some more scan­dals: the Vir­gin Birth, the mir­a­cles of Jesus and his fol­low­ers, the res­ur­rec­tion, and even­tu­ally his return to end his­tory itself.
Ah, noth­ing beats a really good scandal!