My beloved has a passionate interest in the Victorian era and especially it’s more macabre and grotesque aspects. They find the freak shows of the time both repulsive and fascinating – from a scientific perspective the anatomical anomalies induce curiosity, while the notion that people point and laugh at those from different cultures or battling unfortunate circumstances is offensive.
Quite rightly, most of society find this kind of humiliating behaviour deplorable nowadays. At the same time, we absorb car crash television and join Facebook groups that mock the less fortunate. Publicly shaming someone for their mis-steps has become predatory and almost sport.
Human nature isn’t changing nearly as quickly as the technologies that afford us new ways to indulge it. Let’s not be so blinded by what we can do, that we lose sight of what we should.