We should be ashamed of ourselves
Today I saw on Twitter that the divorce/defamation/whatever lawsuit between John C. Depp II and Amber Laura Heard is over.
I’m pleased to hear it.
I’m also pleased to report that I still know nothing about how long they were together, why they got divorced, how long the trial took, what evidence was presented, or even the verdict.
Because I never clicked on a single link that the addiction algorithms advertised.
In fact, I know nothing about either of their personal lives.
All I know is that I loved Secret Window and that they made far too many Pirates of the Caribbean movies.
If the Depp-Heard case was like any other case, I’m sure it was filled with tears, anger, lies, betrayals of intimate secrets, and deeply uncomfortable truths.
In other words, it was filled with personal things that never should be on public display for mass consumption by total strangers.
Trials between former couples should be private.
Court-sealed and destroyed once the couple dies.
Never made public.
Imagine if you were in Depp or Heard’s place.
No matter what you said, did, or thought, why should strangers have access to your once-most-intimate relationship?
Public proceedings are pure voyeurism, a deeply gross form of entertainment.
This is a major problem with America, the West, and perhaps all of humanity:
We are addicted to spectacle.
We love emotional carnage.
We relish in the pain of others.
We are vile and cruel.
We are perverts.
In doing so, we de-humanize celebrities. Real human beings like Depp and Heard — once someone’s precious, adorable, cherished babies like my little son Concord — are reduced to commodities, targets of gossip, mere tabloid fodder. They are no longer people with souls, but objects for consumption.
No parent deserves this.
No future spouse deserves this.
No child deserves this.
Lives and reputations are destroyed every day because of our willingness to click on links and reward “news” outlets for reporting on trash. We are addicted to emotional junk food. And we don’t care how many people get hurt, so long as we feel like we’re better than the poor strangers in crisis who we get to publicly mock like a Medieval witch burning.
Shame on us.
We can do better.
We must do better.
Jared A. Brock is an award-winning biographer, PBS documentarian, and the cell-free founder of the popular futurist blog Surviving Tomorrow, where he provides thoughtful people with contrarian perspectives on the corporatist anti-culture. His writing has appeared in Esquire, The Guardian, Smithsonian, USA Today, and TIME Magazine, and he has traveled to more than forty countries including North Korea. Join 21,000+ people who follow him on Medium, Twitter, and Substack.
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