Cognitive-Dissonance-Surfing

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Last night I went to see a video-insatllation and a performace act.

It was interesting enough, but I can't really say I'd understand art.

Seemed a little phoney and afterwards I got the impression that the guy was actually quite serious. Even though I still didn't have the slightest clue what he was on about, or perhaps even what he was on. On to something, definitely I bet, but to me it made little difference. Like I said, it was interesting enough.

One piece was absolutely fascinating though. Quite hypnotizing, as video installations tend to be. Captivating. And it made me wonder. About cognitive dissonance.

There's moments in life that make it worth the while. To me those brief moments of indecisiveness are especially meaningful. Those moments of 'watching a crashed car in the freeway when your driving by'. The feeling of drawn to and pushed away at the same time. The installation reminded me of this. It was a jumble and flicker of enticing images mixed with the disturbing. Could've been worse, but it almost made my skin crawl. Eyes drawn to and trying to look away at the same time and I kept watching.

It was like the time an alcoholic fell on the rails of the tram and the tram just didn't slow down. I froze. No heroics there. I just kept watching, didn't want to, but just kept watching the impenfding death of the alcoholic. Poor bugger. Probably homeless and one of those guys from which some might say that the blame lies solely on his own shoulders, and others say that it's the society's fault and others blame the rich. I wonder if it was an attempt to get attention on his part. "Look at me! This should make you aknowledge my existence, if only for the last second of my life! Never noticed me before, did you? You'll notice me now! It's all your fault! Here's me showing you!" Perhaps not.

As I only watched, there were some heroes after all. Three guys jumped in front of the oncoming tram and pulled the drunken bugger from the rails just in the nick of time. There was no guilt on my part, had I been closer I might've taken action, but as it were, I would've gotten to the hobo right at the same moment the tram would've rolled over him. But a doubt did begin to linger. Would I really have acted otherwise had I been closer? What if not?

Other memorabe, recent, or not so very recent moments of cognitive dissonance and rather less dramatic have been when I met this hippie-chick, a reiki therapist, a form of "energy-healing" , who was pissed and so was I, said to me that she had a thing for golden showers. A bit of sacred and profane mingling there, a person who believes strongly in the spiritual gets her kicks from something...well something not so spiritual. To each their own I guess. I'm not judging, I'm just dumbfounded.

The other one happened day before yesterday (and on a sidenote, why do I always try to type yesterday as yeasterday?), when a this gorgeous young woman made a presentation concerning children's sexual abuse - the definition of and actions against and the re-definition of child pornography. How according to an Interpol officer, there is no child pornography, that it is in fact evidence material of a crime that haas been, or is currently taking place. I'm willing to agree. Then again, I'd agree on anything this specific young woman would say, especially if she'd spice thigns up by dropping the word 'pornography' every now and then, which she did. The cognitive dissonance part was that her performace to me was a rollercoaster-ride of interest and disgust taking turns. I'd listen to anything she might say, but I don't want to hear the kind of things that she was saying. Listening intently, trying not to hear. Turned on and being disgusted in a high-speed heavy rotation.

I'll end this with today's news from around here. Not happy news, I'm afraid. A middle-aged police officer was indicted and found guilty of raping repeatedly a 15 year old girl. His defense was that a) she was actually willing and b) the girl was 16. Way to go, pig, way to go. Any way you put it, it's still a crime and even worse since this particular perp should definitely know better and uphold the law and not do something like this. To add insult to injury even more the punishment was ridiculously light, as always in cases like these. Of course, as child molesters are hugely popular in prisons, I can only imagine what'll happen to this in jail what with him beinga cop as well. This is one of those cases the crowd should just get up and applaud the wise, wise decision of the justice system. Hoo-effing-ray.

 

This will be a very controversial response, but in this day and age is a 15 year old girl a child? My son is 12 and a half so the Mrs. and I are constantly running into middle school girls. Well let me tell you, they didn't make middle school girls like that when I was in school. Many of these girls are gorgeous women. We are starting to hit the Bar/Bat Mitzvah ciruit. I have to tell you some of these girls I would serve alcohol to as they look like they are 21, and these are the 13 year olds.

We went to a high school JV basketball game last winter and it looked like a college campus. Many of the boys had beards and the girls looked way older than they should have.

To me it raises all sorts of issues with the age of consent. Physically the girls are much older, but mentally they appear much younger. How to come up with an appropriate age of consent is beyond me.

While I agree sex with an eight year old is gross and probably not very popular among the normal criminals, I question if a 15 or 16 year old will generate the same type of response.

 

I fully understand your point. Well as it stands in the law (in here), 18 is considered the age of consent, however if both participants are underage, no crime has been commited if both participants have been willing. So I understand. Should an older person have a sexual relation with an underage, it is a criminal act. It is not stated how much older the person should be, but I gather that the line is primarily considered to be 18 years, making the relationship between an adult and an underage and thus illegal, especially if the age difference is several years, let alone decades as in this particular case.

As to whether a 15 or 16 year old would generate the same type of response than a case when there's no doubt if the victim is a child, you're right. It wouldn't. It doesn't. I suppose the magical line of a child entering puberty and available for sexual advances of older men (let's face it, still extremely rare for women to be perps in children's sexual abuse) nowadays would be after 13. One case comes to mind where a girl complained about how her boyfriend, over 18, cheated her with her sister, a girl of 14. The young woman didn't even consider that this might be a criminal case and of course if it is extremely difficult for the legal system to draw a line in cases such as these, so much more to those teenagers who have hardly any knowledge of the law.

The way I see it the law's there to protect those who can't protect themselves. Until people are 18 the society and legal system cannot and does not expect people to be able to protect themselves no matter how mature they might seem. This might change, of course, but I'm not too keen to see society going that way.