#hashtag

Listening to the podcast version of Real Time with Bill Maher this morning I was taken aback to learn that no US state has a minimum age requirement for marriage and that over the past 15 years 200,000 children, some as young as 10, have been married.  A closer look online shows the real situation is a little more complex than Bill’s end of show ‘fun fact’ but still it’s disturbing to discover Afghanistan has tougher laws on child marriage than many parts of the US (Human Rights Watch 2017). I don’t recall ever seeing this item in the news or any hashtag campaign to change public consciousness or behaviour.  The subject of child abuse is an ugly one and each time a perpetrator is snagged and prosecuted, a feeling of ‘gotcha’ is hard to repress. However, old photographs of Jerry Lee Lewis with his 13 year old bride and first cousin once removed are rock’n’roll nostalgia and Roman Polanski has enjoyed a successful career despite spending most of his life as a fugitive for the statutory rape of a minor. Don’t try this at home might be sage advice for anyone of lesser fame.

The #metoo movement has its roots deep in the soil of injustice and inequality faced by women, but coming as it has through the voices of Hollywood victims, it would be easy to understand an #aboutfuckingtime movement for those lacking glitz and glitter. The book Hollywood Babylon by Kenneth Anger was first published in the US in 1965, banned, then republished 10 years later. An account of abuses of power and position in Hollywood with tales of rape, murder, casting couches, prostitution and so forth it may well have served as an instruction manual for Harvey Weinstein. Anger himself said he was unsurprised at the Weinstein revelations stating showbiz is ‘a synonym for sin’. What is less clear is how this seems to have escaped the attention of the outraged hashtagging world and generations of actors.

Being able to question these things is fundamental not only to understand the nature of the beast and slay it, but also to deprive the likes of Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov of oxygen when claiming the women accusing Weinstein were gold digging prostitutes. A hashtag alone won’t do it but may even end up fuelling the clown car assemblage of narrow interests and resentments that ushered Trump into office.

Perhaps it is the world of social media and the Daily Me that has created the ability we have to be shocked at the least shocking things. If we tailor our exposure to world events, filtering out all opposing voices, anything and everything can become scandalous by mere dint of it not being on our menu. The recent scandal about Facebook selling the personal data of its users struck me as being among the least surprising news items of recent times. It is hard to believe today that anybody but the most credulous believe in free lunches but it appears many still do. A quick online search comes up with numerous memes stating that if you aren’t the customer then you’re the product, so how is it that despite all the fears of internet intrusion into the minutiae of our lives, many users of social media platforms such as Facebook still cling to the notion of a free lunch?

Maybe in future I should just eat breakfast before listening to the Real Time with Bill Maher podcast.

#eatfirstthinklater