"...Better To Light A Candle Than Curse The Darkness....And, Every Now And Then, Simply Enjoy The Darkness While It Lasts..."

Old saying.

Ignorance is bliss.

New saying.

Coming up shortly.


Shirley Temple Black, who rose to fame as arguably the most popular child star in Hollywood history, died late Monday night, her publicist said.

She was 85.

The rest of this story is easily available online in a variety of places.

Let the Googling begin, if you're so inclined.

The rest of this piece has nothing, per se', to do with the lady's passing.

Except, perhaps, in passing.

Only a very young child or a very naïve' person can live very long in this life and not be aware that there are a lot of bitter, angry, unhappy and, yes, emotionally and/or psychologically unbalanced people in this world.

This is, though, old and, hardly, breaking news.

If you start with Adam and Eve, it doesn't take much branch searching to find a little wacka-doin' on the ol' family tree.

Shakespeare, as a matter of fact, addressed that very issue, at least conceptually, when he included a little profundity from Ecclesiastes in one of his sonnets.

Something along the lines of "there's nothing new under the sun".

There is, at the same time, a lot of conversation conversed these days, in person, on social media, et al that indicates a suspicion, even a belief, that the aforementioned bitter, angry, etc unbalance seems to be on the increase.

"World be crazy, bitches" is one colorfully colloquial way of currently expressing that opinion.

Hmm.

Interesting conjecture.

I noticed some evidence to back up that theory yesterday when the first news of Mrs. Black's passing showed up online.

Evidence in the form of the readers' comments that inevitably follow most articles now posted on the ol' Interweb.

In this case, the story, written in a strictly news reported fashion, and posted on CNN.com

Most of the comments, as you would imagine and, certainly, hope were of a respectful, articulate nature.

There were more, though, than just a few threads that ran a little like this.

(This is an actual cut and paste from the comments section, a "conversation" involving more than a few contributors, their individual "contributions" indicated by space between them and indentation, their identities excluded for obvious reasons)


I wonder what the average life span is for children that achieved such status since the 1980's.
Average life span I'm guessing will be around 35.
Corey Haim, Gary Coleman, Dana Plato.
Macauley Culkin practically looks dead.
Any others come to mind?

 

     You're brain dead dude. Who are you to say who looks dead?

Um, this gift called common sense. Macauley is a known heroin fiend. 

     Troll

I give her a 10 compared to all the rif-raff lousy gay actors we have now.

 

     I thought she passed years ago...

 

Too bad we cannot say the same thing about you. Go back to the kitchen.

 

     Morning star how are you doing? I'm sorry you feel the need to put me down to make yourself feel better. I forgive you morning star

 

     I can take it all, shove as many things as you want up there 

 

 

Again, hmm.

 

For those unhip to the jargon, the term "troll" is defined as someone who wanders ("trolls") around website comment sections for the sole purpose of grumping, griping, grousing and/or dealing with their psychosis by performing the text writing equivalent of peeing in everyone else's Cheerios.

 

Regardless of the subject and/or topic at hand.

 

In this case, the old age passing of a beloved child star.

 

Here's the thing.

 

And the point.

 

It would almost be possible to write off this kind of sad, and sadistic, spewing as understandable, if not acceptable,  if it were inspired by one of contemporary culture's current hot button topics like, say, gun control or politics or abortion...

 

...or the USA Network's infuriating insistence on blocking your attempts to watch their shows with pop up ads hyping the show coming up.

 

But the topic of the story in this case was the old age passing of a beloved child star.

 

So, clearly, bitter, angry, unhappy and, yes, emotionally and/or psychologically unbalance is alive, raging, rocking and rolling in a comment section near you.

 

But on the increase?

 

Hmm.

 

Conceding, on the front end, that definitive conclusions are the province of trained sociologists and that I have no training in that field, I don't think it overly presumptive to suggest that there have always been angry, bitter, unhappy and, yes, emotionally and/or psychologically unbalanced people in this world.

 

Back to Adam and Eve, for a moment.

 

And that dude Cain, for example.

 

Now there was a very grinchy gus if'n ever there was one.

 

Again, since day one.

 

What, though, there has not been since day one is satellite communications and social media.

 

And the methodology available for every one, cheerful, happy, loving, balanced as well as angry, bitter, unhappy, etc. to boot up, log on, type first and ask questions later.

 

To an international group of fellow beings.

 

In 1865, Abraham Lincoln was shot to death.

 

In some cases, it was, owing to the communicative technology available, literally weeks before some Americans learned that their President had been assassinated.

 

In 1963, John F. Kennedy was shot to death.

 

In most cases, Americans were aware of the assassination within, at most, a few hours.

 

Today, we can, literally, watch horrific events take place in real time.

 

The bodies weren't out of the building before we all knew the horror of Newtown.

 

It's not exactly a jump to a conclusion that these horrific events seem to be happening with increased frequency.

 

When, actual chances are, they actually are not.

 

We just know more.

 

Because we read more.

 

And talk more.

 

And hear more.

 

And see more.

 

And there are more of us knowing and reading and talking and hearing and seeing.

 

Faster than ever before.

 

New saying.

 

Ignorance was bliss.