Are There Times When We're More Open To Different People Than Other Times?

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Check out these recording artists (three soloists and one quartet)... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1J-B5RMBKw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDgnosZjWAU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uSuI5I_md4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN3GbF9Bx6E If these people--all successful both in their time and decades later--had started out today, it might have been more difficult for them to get ahead. The first three would probably be told that they would have to lose weight to make it in the pop music industry, and--as for the quartet--three-fourths of them would probably pass the test, but the fat one would either have to go on a diet (or even get by-pass surgery) or else leave the group. Her other three partners would have the choice of being loyal to her or else taking the advice of the powers-that-be. The world would have missed out on some great talent if today's mindset went on way back when. I think there's a difference in believing that people might be in better health after shedding a few--or a lot of--pounds and treating overweight/obese people as third-class citizens. And weight isn't the only issue now. There has always been a certain amount of teasing that goes on in the schools--though it seems to me that, at one time, teachers were more concerned about getting it under control than they are now--but there are too many kids these days who actually have a legitimate dread of going to school these days because they know that they will be taunted and bullied for a number of things. Among the things that kids get taunted and bullied about are... their weight their body size (how tall or short they are along with other physical traits) their clothing their speech patterns and the list goes on and on. Too many of these kids end up taking their own lives--and, at times, taking others down with them. Others run away after finding nobody who is able to make it stop. Some of our Invisible Youth http://www.orgsites.com/ca/invisibleyouth/ have taken off because of this very reason--believing that they can find more peace in living risky lives on the street than they can staying in the situation they've encountered in their community. I'd like to get a discussion going re: why we have a climate where the pain of others has become a form of entertainment. What factors go into creating such an atmosphere? The atmosphere I'm describing is where people get harshly judged; where rehabilitation is seen as a fantasy of "bleeding heart liberals while "three strikes and your out" is in; where a blind eye is turned to kids getting taunted and bullied by those who should be in charge and controlling this; where "entertainment" gets done at the expense of others such as making a show out of putting troubled kids into boot-camps--and even the fact that these boot-camps have become so popular even when they aren't being televised. We need to talk about this problem, because it's not going to go away. We need to think of ways to fix it! And, again, we need to look at the kind of atmosphere that is breeding this kind of mindset and analyze it...