There’s actually a Jesus Christ Superstar parody told from the view of the innkeeper (featuring The Mighty Boosh’s Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt, Julia Davis, Rich Fulcher, Matt Lucas, Matt Berry and Richard Ayoade):

AD/BC: A Rock Opera

Here you go create another fable.

It would have been even better, if I’d said:

“An excellent source of irony.”

But alas, I’m not that witty on the spot. :-P

/********** Setting up the fkuArray **********/

fkuArray = array(…

Oh, the irony. :D

“Did I tell you about my mom and dad? Well, my mom and dad went on vacation down at Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. This was about…six years ago, I think. Seems like it was six, about six years ago…six or seven, possibly seven, could be. Somewhere in there, six, seven: more than six, less than seven. Let’s call it six and a half. So my mom and dad went on vacation at Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, and my dad found a big rock. …What he thought was a big rock; turns out it was a dinosaur turd. A petrified dinosaur turd, twenty-seven-pounder.”

“You know, now that I think of it, it might have been eight years ago. That would’ve been close to Y2K, wouldn’t it? Remember Y2K? Whatever happened? Everybody was all worried about that; nothin’ ever happened. Hahahahahaha. Big fuss…nothin’ ever happened! You know? God, that’s strange, you know? So let’s say…we’ll say it’s eight years ago, it was either eight or five.”

“So my dad gave my mom this big turd; he said, ‘Here, Mom, this is a big dinosaur turd; put it in your purse and take that home.’ My mom said, ‘Dad, I don’t think this is a dinosaur turd; this thing is still warm. Whoever dropped this thing is still walking around in here, and we better get the fuck outta this cave!’”

“Nine years ago! Nine. I know it was nine because my wife was pregnant with our first boy, Mak Mudi Ben’el Said ben Salaam. And he’s ten now. …Or is he? He’s eleven, maybe he’s eleven. He’s either eleven or five.”

One of us. One of us. :-)

Haensulus Graetulaque ante portas stat.

“Cnuspa, cnuspa Wasa. Qui cnuspat mea casa?”

“Ave, Hexa. Morituri te salutant.”

Suspect is hat-less, I repeat: hat-less!

Well, she’s changed a lot after her 16th birthday:

But the poster you replied to has a point:

Just like most animals the greater majority of people try to avoid as many direct conflicts as possible IRL. And they’re full of empathy and compassion - even for other animals in distress and inanimate objects (saw off the fingers of a plastic doll in front of others and see how they treat you afterwards).

But of course people will lose a part of that compassion etc once they move within society without feeling like a part of it. One example is driving a car. You’re way less aware of being a part of society even though you’re “swimming” in it. Feeling a strong individual agency and being empowered by two tons of steel while simultaneously being greatly restricted by everyone and everything around you will do that to you.

Same goes for the (social) media landscape. We feel empowered by our own echo chambers and/or chosen media outlet while barely interacting with anyone who could challenge our beliefs (which, funnily enough, is often the right call in that context, because we can’t change strong opposing beliefs via social media). And since it’s all an indirect, mostly faceless interaction, our beliefs will automatically be strengthened and we’ll be more likely to agitate anyone with opposing beliefs (while still avoiding any direct conflict).

So I’d say it’s more of a flaw in our design, that is being exploited, than a general lack of sympathy/empathy (of which we actually have plenty).

Which means you can’t hold any one individual to higher standards. Because that’s not where we “fail”. It’d take a much broader appliance of social securities (housing, food, healthcare, education etc all over the world) and a fundamental change in the way we interact. But you and I won’t change that (though I guess it’s comforting telling ourselves that we could individually change things on a greater scale).