How we treat others matters
By Emma.
Yesterday it transpired that a young woman was so desperately unhappy, that she tried to take their own life. Sadly, this is not an uncommon occurrence. We all have moments of desperation, bleakness and loneliness. But when most of us hit rock bottom, we are allowed to do so privately, with the support of our family and friends and without the intrusion of a LiveBlog. But then most of us weren’t born the child of the most famous man in the world, which apparently makes this poor girl “fair game”.
The children of the famous – and famous people themselves – are the oil that makes the tabloid world go around. To be famous is the highest accolade in our rather warped society and it doesn’t seem to take fame or talent to achieve this; just notoriety, proximity to the talented, a willingness to share the stories of your life (real and “structured”). Enough people seem to crave this attention to fill the papers a thousand times over – a worrying syndrome in itself. So why are we so willing to countenance the invasion of privacy of those who don’t want it and for whom that intrusion would be positively harmful.
It is astonishing to think that it is less than 2 years since the News of the World was closed because of their intrusion into the lives of a family unwillingly thrust into the limelight. How quickly we have fallen from outrage over intrusion to intruding on the grief of this young woman.
Sometimes this intrusion is important and necessary. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Profumo affair – when a sexual affair exposed the British Government to blackmail. Sometimes public interest and gossip do overlap. But more often than not this isn’t the case. The truism is true: what interests the public is not always the same as what is in the public interest.
There has also been a great deal of relativism involved. Because of who her father was – and the financial rewards that came with his fame – some people seem more relaxed over this intrusion than that that happened to the family of Milly Dowler. There seems to be a callousness about the emotions of the rich and the famous that we would find reprehensible if it were directed to the poor or the vulnerable.
This is wrong. People are people – we shouldn’t lose our humanity for those ostensibly more fortunate than us any more than we should for those less so. A common humanity knows no bounds of class, wealth or fame. Every single one deserves our sympathy and their loved ones our support. Many people – perhaps even some people reading this – will at some point consider doing the same. Please – if you can – get some help. Talk to someone – a friend or a professional. The Samaritans can be reached at any time of the day or night on 08457 90 90 90. The rest of us should be supportive and sympathetic in whatever way we can – whoever it is we find to be in need.
