The age of social media has given heftier weight to the old saying about how a lie can travel around the world before the truth has put its shoes on.
Prime example
Here in Ireland, we were given a prime example of this when it was reported that female students at a Catholic school in Carlow were told they shouldn’t be wearing tight clothing because the male teachers at the school found it “distracting”.
It’s a good story, but the only issue is – there was nothing about it.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, the principal Ray Murray clarified the situation, and in doing so, poured cold water on all of the incendiary claims that had long been circulating on social media at this stage – including from journalists.
Mr Murray described how some of the school’s female students hadn’t been adhering to the dress code, with the principal describing the situation as becoming more like a “fashion show” than anything else. As such, the school organised a number of assemblies to remind its female students of the uniform policy.
And that’s it. That’s the story: the age-old tale of a school reminding its students of the rules.
The storm that developed out of this reveals far more about some sections of the media, and a growing desire to seek out and punish than it does about unsavoury behaviour at a secondary school.
On Twitter and in print, journalists and politicians grasped at rumours and hearsay that the girls had been “body-shamed” by male teachers who couldn’t control themselves. A mob was whipped up which promptly descended upon the school’s male staff, with the word ‘paedo’ being used liberally.
All this because a school decided to enforce its uniform rules.
Response
The disproportionality of the response to the actual events belies a profound sickness lurking below the surface of our society. It’s reminiscent of – if not demonstrative of – the scapegoating mechanism societies have employed since time began, which sees the singling out of a person or a group of people based on their perceived slights or unworthiness, and the subsequent negative treatment of them.
While social media, coupled with fast, loose and irresponsible journalism has provided new challenges for those seeking to nudge the world in a loving direction, there is one large step that can be taken to slow the headlong rush into a world ruled by the mob.
Truth
A commitment to the truth is essential to the building of any sort of stable society. Had journalists not promulgated an untrue story and run with it, there would be fewer people today in Ireland living under a black cloud, namely, the male teachers at Presentation College Carlow. Had we been a little quicker to search out the truth of the matter, we would have been more clearly able to see Christ in the teachers, rather than monsters.
If creating a more loving, just and truthful world is ever to be successful, each member of society has to make a personal commitment to the truth. The alternative is to swing at shadows until the whole world falls down around us.