Wow. The Las Vegas Review-Journal has gone mirror universe on us, running a piece by a “behavioral health consultant” whose premise is that sadism is good. I’m not exaggerating:
But I find useful the broader colloquial understanding of the word; namely, the human capacity to experience a deep and pleasant feeling of satisfaction, humor, entertainment and revelry in someone else’s pain, humiliation, discomfort or otherwise diminishment. I like this broader definition mostly because then everyone has to struggle with it. Not just me. Ha-ha.
….
I’m telling you, sadism is an entertainment gold mine.Sadism in small doses, when combined with good faith, can make positive contributions to the human experience. Some thread of sadism can be found in teasing, interpersonal parody and satire. (Healthy families and healthy marriages do a lot of teasing, parody and satire!) Sadism is an ingredient in tickling and practical jokes, the stuff of life where I grew up. Lovers use the metaphor “sweet torture.” Surprise! A splash of sadism is present in moments of healthy sexual courtship, as couples take turns in “the driver’s seat” of dominance and control.
We can enjoy folks’ humiliation and suffering. It’s a fact. Sadism keeps us honestly and utterly human. Empathy is sadism’s balance, bridle and remedy.
ReviewJournal.com – Living – HUMAN MATTERS: Sadism, hurtful or playful, is integral part of our culture
Before I unpack this piece of…writing, how about an update on the mirror universe?
In the Star Trek mythos, the mirror universe was first expressed in the 1967 Original Series episode Mirror, Mirror. Because of a transported malfunction, Kirk & company end up in a parallel universe where there is no Federation of planets, only a Galactic Empire run on fear and greed–and Spock’s got a beard.
Later series returned to the mirror universe, particularly Enterprise, in a two-parter called “In a Mirror Darkly,” which is, for my money, one of the best episodes of that series. If you don’t want to click over to see what that’s about, let me describe the opening credits: the usual Enterprise credits have scenes of peaceful exploration running under an inspirational pop song soundtrack. You can see it here.
By contrast, the two mirror episodes have scenes of war and devastation with a stirring martial track:
In the Enterprise mirror universe, the usually kindly and jovialDr. Phlox can barely suppress his glee as he torments a captured prisoner, and everyone is simultaneously scheming and fearful. It’s a world without a shred of empathy, compassion, or dignity.
Reading this column, I had to check to make sure I hadn’t taken a wrong turn off the 95 and ended up in a mirror universe Vegas. The author’s point seems to be that it’s OK to hurt other people, as long as it’s done in moderation. In fact, he says, it’s all just good clean fun!
Just because people are sadistic doesn’t mean that we should strive to incorporate sadism into our lives. After all, people do all sorts of horrible things to each other. This doesn’t make it right. Iit’s ironic that on the same day this column ran, the RJ had a cover story about a senseless gun-wielding idiot killing a high school student in Summerlin.
I’d like to think that we live in a society where we don’t place our own immediate gratification above everything else, including the rights and dignity of others. A world where, as Lincoln put it, the “better angels of our nature” have the upper hand. But seeing a column like this by a “behavioral health consultant” makes me wonder just where we’re headed.
On the lighter side, the more I think about it, the more I think that I might, in fact, already be in the mirror universe. In the Star Trek mirror universe, everyone is greedy, bad-tempered, and promiscuous. Sounds a lot like a weekend in Vegas, doesn’t it?