We live in a voyeur's nation, where people want to know everything about you, especially what sins they can judge you by, having never met you. It's a shameful part of our "justice" system.
It is true, though. People are entertained by others misfortunes. People also like to judge others based on their past history. Add in a legal system with a media arm that loves to publicize everything, and you've got a winning combination. Plus, it makes prosecutors look tough on crime. I say these things because that is what has become of our nation. We're hard nosed, and hard hearted. They revel in this kind of spectacle.
Except that court documents have been considered public records for a very long time. Certainly before the U.S. would have been considered a "voyeur's nation."
Court documents, yes, but now they get spread all over the internet, on social media, on television. If you're arrested in Detroit, Michigan for stealing a $100 out of an ATM, they know about it in Bakersfield, California. People can comment about it on Facebook, and don't think the news doesn't toss it right up on their program, because they do. It's an infotainment culture, and rehabilitation is nigh on impossible because your past will forever follow you in every media form there is, because the internet never forgets.
I have to disagree about rehabilitation being impossible because of court documents, Internet, Facebook and such.
Because they have a talent. Celebrities are in a different class because they have a talent, or they have something which appeals to the population at large. Look at drug incarcerations in the United States compared to how many stories you hear out of Hollywood involving celebrities and drugs, and how they get the rehab they need while Joe Schmoe gets tossed in a jail cell with a $10,000 bond he can't afford to pay. That goes on his record, and stays on his record when he applies for a job, seeks financial assistance, and so on. In Hollywood, that just gets added to the story, and an actor can still make bank even after the worst of offenses.
It's alright, I tend to post something and forget to add the larger context, because it was in my head, I just didn't transfer it to written form.
In this case it was actually me who just read the last post and not those before that, therefore my assumption that it was all about celebrities.
Yes, you are correct. Before a majority of such information was online, you would have to go to a specific court and have copies made of documents yourself, which made it too time consuming and tedious to do it unless it was necessary for some reason.
No.
Weak and irrational.
Compassionate. Empathetic. Humane. Kind. Merciful. Reasonable. Wise.
