Who is Curating Your Shared Space ?

Mental illness (no matter what the onset) has a stigma, despite the efforts of Carrie Fisher and others to reduce that and allow it to be addressed as just part of life. So the mention of it here is not intended to increase stigma, even if that is an un-intended side effect. Should the mentally ill be the ones to curate cultural content? Should the raging, angry people with life-long aftershock of trauma have the deciding vote as to what the rest of society can enjoy and what what radio stations or broadcasters can play without fear of blow back or advertiser boycott? Should the mentally ill and their mates or family and friends who are obligated to attempt to make their world a safe space be the last word? Because they are already assuming that position. Expect each side of these debates to assume the tactical position of victim, to be as critic-proof as possible, so that any question could be looked at as insensitive. It may strike at the heart of concerns about open spaces left under-populated and urban centers over-populated. It may touch upon scarcity (which will become a more realistic view than plenty as years roll on). We will be at odds over what it means to be a community rather than factions and individuals. If it isn't race or culture that divides people, it can be our opinions and priorities as to what to do about complaints. In the case of a woman who has suffered rape in her past, there may not be a therapy that gets her over a re-living of that. She may claim that hearing the song "Baby it's Cold Outside" is her trigger to anxiety and memory flashbacks to her attack. While this may be true in her case, it raises questions for the rest of us (maybe to politely ask behind her back). When did she begin to associate this song with "date rape" ? Was it some time after it was used in Elf ? Was it after assault survivor Lady Gaga recorded it twice? Was it after some activist on a twitchy website looking for a fight first offered the dark interpretation> If the lyrics are the trigger, then are we being told that instrumental muzak in a shopping mall will cause the anxiety or full breakdown? If so, then how many notes? Would a ringtone of Baby it's Cold Outside cause an episode? How can the entire world change and adapt itself to make sure nobody is triggered? And then, what is the next song or movie we can wipe from the face of the earth? Because some ear jacks can still be heard in a quiet moment, and your neighbour's music can get pretty annoying sometimes, so it isn't even a matter of the "public space" as the final frontier. Does it matter who makes a complaint? Is removal of a song really sparing someone a trauma? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11731348 Nobody wants to be perceived as "blaming the victim" but it has been a long established principle of psychology that victims are ticking time bombs. While having compassion for someone abused, raped, assaulted, or enduring battle fatigue, or any form of PTSD, it is also worth remembering that untreated this can result in acting out in ways that harm others. In the case of an inherently non-violent person, there may be more subtle ways of acting out: attempting to re-assert control over the world when it can't be retroactively asserted over the attacker who is no longer around. It may even be focused upon the issue of demanding that a song be removed from the public sphere (or altogether). A victim may claim the reason to get rid of it is so that it won't dredge up memories of the abuse or rape or trauma, but all the while she or he will be constantly discussing the issue, searching the topic on-line and posting about it. This feeds into the movement of social media (if not the real world at large) to get rid of all things from the past, especially content that is deemed to stem from the male gaze, the patriarchy, colonialism, or just plain whiteness or maleness, or dated chestnuts that have been a tradition and comfort food for many on the common road to the grave. The conceit is that how great music, media and television will be when it is entirely given over to the whims of the Bollywood and Chinese finances behind it or when we finally have abolished the idea that a movie star must be what most people consider sexually attractive or photogenic. Is the history of cinema no longer important? Is the craft of directing - film grammar - no longer part of the communication? That's another issue and another rant. But there does seem to me a wide swath of encroachment pending and already gathering steam if the social media bubble I'm in is to be believed. Some of the most outspoken are the ostensibly Woke super-progressive types who think Social Justice Warrior (SJW) is not something to be used as a pejorative despite its inherent sarcastic intent. In China they call it beizuo.