But the lions are in the stands.
I’m afraid we’ve entered the age of a virtual coliseum where barbaric, human-spirit shredding is the preferred entertainment. The paragraph below provides a brief description of how depraved and cruel people were in Vespasian’s day. I believe they had nothing on our culture!
“The Roman Colosseum Arena was a stage of combat for the gladiators and occasionally staged mock naval battles. Its 80,000 seat stadium inspired the gladiators, who were mostly slaves, criminals, or prisoners of war, to fight for their freedom. The horrors of the blood-thirsty crowd of thousands cheering on the gladiators’ fight for their lives leaves it to our imagination what entertainment meant to the ancient Romans.” (https://www.headout.com/blog/rome-colosseum-arena/)
One of the hottest tickets at the Roman coliseum was when Christians were mercilessly fed to hungry lions. They were savagely martyred as “fans” watched, ate their popcorn and jeered the bloody Christians.
Today, bloodthirsty and merciless spectators are provided front row seats in the arena of social media to chant, humiliate, dehumanize and destroy those with whom they disagree. They have an opinion about everything. They pretend they can outperform everyone, regardless of their lack of actual usefulness. But they are so much more than spectators, they are virtual lions, digitally tearing people to shreds.
This is how today’s coliseum differs from ancient Rome: the lions are not on the arena floor doing battle, the lions are spewing their hateful wickedness from the cheap seats. They are not engaged in the battle, they are too cowardly to risk their lives. So, they cruelly butcher those brave enough to actually fight. They sit on their mother’s couch, hiding behind their keyboard, and talk trash, fearless of repercussions.
I personally know individuals who are in the very public arena, trying to perform their craft in a professional manner, who have drawn the ire of the crowds. These crowds won’t simply share their disdain for the lack of performance with family or friends, they take to the only place where they can say anything they want to say without consequence: social media. The cruelty is unimaginable in a civilized world. I personally believe we left that world behind a few years ago.
If you are a productive member of society and become the target of these vulgar barbarians, take heart, you are not alone. Let’s not expect the lions to let up. They won’t have any mercy. They will take great delight in trying to destroy you. But they can’t make you quit unless you allow them.
Stay in the fight, ignore the social media lions.
By the way, I am not currently a victim of these social media trolls, but I have dear friends and colleagues who are. To them I say, stay focused. Do your job. Let the lions roar. Perhaps they’ll soon become so intoxicated on flesh and blood that they pass out.
History will prove that you were a warrior and they were nothing more than a roaring but cowardly lion.
Thoughts on Life and Leading 