What Would You Do Now?

I recently stumbled upon a television program I'd never seen before. It immediately captured me. Random people are put in contentious situations by staged actors and a hidden camera crew. The situations are emotionally driven and eagerly judged by societies.

From rulers to peasants, we all have our own throne to sit upon. It is built of our ideals, comprised of what we believe to be right, and that which we know to be wrong. So what do we do when we step outside and find ourselves faced with testing the sturdiness of that throne we sat so securely on just this morning?

The program shows outrageous incidents that demand an instant opinion, requiring you to choose which side of the fence you're on. Society, on a whole, immediately chooses the obviously correct side of that proverbial fence and for most of us, that choice is the building blocks of our individual ideals.

I was elated! Have we hit the upward curve of enlightenment? I am watching societies ideals in action and grateful to a television program for giving us a live seminar on how to grow new generations of sturdy, easily obtainable, throne building material. These random people are faced with defending an apparent victim and they overcome that forceful surge of emotion telling them to "stay out of it". We are all touched with the majority of people saying it wasn't heroism, but just the "right thing to do."

For the most part, we've agreed that we know what the right things are and applaud the 'heroes' out there for doing them. The program shows us it does happen; people are standing up for each other - stranger to stranger. We even see people doing the right thing on a humanity level; stopping situations that can possibly lead to the harm of unseen strangers. This proves to me that each one of us is capable of doing the right thing. Just think, if more and more people, every day, stood up and did the right thing, what our world would look like. This has to be the inertia that propels us toward becoming a truly peaceful, respectful society.

The program throws a twist in this two part seminar. They test not only our ideals, but also the materials we chose to build with. Maybe that's the key to building the strongest possible throne; if your materials are filled with holes, it is easily blown down. Intellectually we know this, yet every form of media shows daily examples of us not applying it. What if the victim sits upon a throne that is frowned upon by society? Are they still not a victim? And doesn't it portray the strongest of thrones in protecting the victim without judgment, but simply for being a fellow human being?

How many people will be motivated to always trust in their core and overcome the emotionally fearful drive to walk away? Will we act in faith of the "right thing to do", or will we shuffle home, climb upon our trembling thrones and convince ourselves it doesn't touch us? What would you do... now?

T Timlock