What is our minimum standard these days? I listened to a podcast with author Stephen Pressfield recently and he spoke to the lack of shame that we have as a society in general these days. He mentioned the days when shame itself would set our minimum standard. An example he brought up was the Samurai. The Samurai would quite literally rather die by his own hand than live dishonourably. I am not a proponent of the extreme but there was a time not long ago that people would at least do what they could to live an honourable life. It was a time when being called a liar or a cheat cut to the quick of a person. There was a level that a person just wouldn't stoop to in order to get their own personal gain.
What is our new level? Have we developed some sort of tolerance for shock value? Things that get printed in the news doesn't seem to be truly investigated. Journalists will rip out an article to get readers attention, and then not so much as an editors note in the next edition (that used to be there) apologizing for any incorrect facts. The former President of the the United States said some truly offside remarks during his tenure. These things wouldn't have been uttered by someone in that position at one time, at least not publicly.
Maybe I am completely wrong on this one and things have always been this way...maybe just behind the scenes. Maybe now, people are just being themselves? I find that hard to believe but maybe it's true? I was watching a movie made by Disney very recently. They advertised another movie by Disney coming soon. It was the story of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee. Disney?! Seriously?! Is that the new minimum that the wholesome home of Winnie the Pooh has? Producing movies about leaked sex tapes and throwing their name behind it?
Graphic images and scenes can be found at the click of a button online. Was it the internet that caused the demise of our minimum standard of honour and integrity? Is it just the fact that human nature was been truly exposed through clickbait? I like to think that we are mentally tougher than that, but it has seemed to have opened the gossip column to an entirely new level. A picture used to be proof. Now there is photoshop. A recording was damning evidence. Now there are ways to manipulate that to ensure an entirely different message is heard, even created out of an algorithm that analyses tone and intonation of a persons voice. I don't mean to go down any rabbit hole here, but it seems that we are living in an era where a person truly cannot trust what they see and hear...even from those that used to be valued as trustworthy sources.
For centuries, politicians have jokingly been known to bend the truth, but it's at an entirely different low these days. Now if there is even a glint of truth it can be wrapped in so many lies that one doesn't know what to truly base a decision on anymore. Our minimum acceptable standard of the level one will go to in order to stay in a position, to climb a ladder, or even to get "likes " on social media has reached a depth that just can't be healthy. The media has a major role in this and has the audacity then to get behind and push the snake oil solution of Bell Lets Talk down one line, while feeding the machine in another that facilitates shock and depression in whatever means that they can to create a story.
Now more than ever it is time to put the oxygen on yourself in order to help those beside you in this turbulent aircraft. It's very easy to go down the slippery slope of negativity and to waste time eating wherever the scrolling slot machine of distraction takes a person. It takes a lot of discipline to live wholesomely these days. It takes some careful treading through the information highway to figure out what is safe and what isn't. I'm not an overly religious person but it seems to be similar to that shiny apple in the garden of eden. The Ten Commandments can arguably said to have been tossed aside somewhere along the way.
All is not lost though. There are likeminded people who don't subscribe to a lot of the misinformation. There are people who can be role modelled, and can be looked up to as mentors. It really is as simple as deleting a few from your daily interactions and social accounts that bring about misinformation; that bring the energy down in life; that engage in the gossip. There is the freedom of choice. The freedom to choose how one will act and react; and the freedom to live and hold others in their circle to a higher degree of standard. Each one of us can truly be world class in that regard.....Let's not accept the minimum standard...it's the minimum for a reason.