“O be careful little eyes what you see; O be careful little eyes what you see; There's a Father up above; And He's looking down in love; So, be careful little eyes what you see.”
It was a beautiful summer day. The endless blue sky served as a peaceful backdrop for a golden sun spilling its light on the thousands waiting in the stands. You could feel the excitement circulating in the stadium until you could almost taste it. And when the game began, you could hear the crowd rise en masse to cheer on their favorites. They forgot about their own problems for just a little while. They forgot about the bills that were due and concentrated on the bets they placed. They forgot everything in the excitement of the game.
Sound familiar?
I hope not.
These were not football, baseball or soccer games. These were the gladiatorial games witnessed by an ever increasingly desensitized and crass people known as the ancient Romans.
They basked in the violence and bloodshed. They cheered as Christians were murdered by the thousands by wild animals and crosses. And that was all before the real bloodletting began.
Two men are fighting to the death for one purpose and one purpose alone – the entertainment of a Roman populace; grown crass, vulgar and drunk on blood. Their frustrations in their personal lives siphoned off onto the sand below.
They watched in feral fascination with a maniacal gleam in their eye; glad it was not they that looked into the face of death on that particular day. Their consciousness’ were seared and their sympathies deaden. An entire population numbed to the lull of violence and bloodshed.
And we call them barbaric.
Fast forward 2000 years.
While technology has given us access to global events, our emotions are far removed. We cannot see the very real suffering in a faraway country as anything other than a movie or video game.
We watch movies and play video games full of violence and bloodshed. We allow our children to play video games where the object is to kill as many ‘people’ as possible. Be honest.
We watch the NASCAR not to see the race, but to see how many pile-ups there will be.
We watch a hockey game hoping and yearning for a fight to break out. We siphon off our frustrations of our own lives. And with a maniacal gleam in our eye, we keep killing people on the screen; each kill another cauterization to our soul.
And the devil smiles.
He has bided his time and subtlely introduced the violence and sex we see slowly and deliberately. Little by little, movies changed and we kept watching. Little by little, video games changed and we kept playing. We are the barbarians.
We have become the Roman mob.
O be careful little eyes what you see; O be careful little eyes what you see; There's a Father up above; And He's looking down in love; So, be careful little eyes what you see.