The Convenience of Cecil the Cat

"It is a growing trend of internet mob justice, one that often bleeds into real-world harassment with real-world consequences." (Article here: http://www.vox.com/2015/7/30/9074865/cecil-lion-palmer-mob-justice)

'Cecil' tells me two things: we love pointing fingers and being quick to cast judgment.  We also love deflecting from our own shortcomings.  Admitting our own faults is either to painful or inconvenient.

It's always been easier to point fingers at others. It is driven by our tendencies to deflect away from our own short comings as individuals, and at times collective shortcomings as a nation or culture.  

We are also quick to react to assumptions, half truths, and flat out lies with no time given to allow truth to come forth or information and facts to be collected.  

Often it is led by alarmist mentalities, the loudest voices (but not the wisest), and built on faulty views of other people (prejudice), and is often driven less than honorable motives (we call them politicians).

We fall for the typical problem of believing the first thing read, or the loudest voice we hear,  all too often becoming too little to late when much of what we first read or heard can often be simply untrue.

An emotionally charged response based on feelings, fed by our own prejudices and assumptions, which is based in little information does not lead to justice but revenge.

These mob mentalities (revenge for a cat) are so minor compared to much greater, a real issues that deserve much more, and necessary attention (Planned Parenthood, anyone?)

The convenience of Cecil is that it is easy to fight this "injustice" because it  allows us to "feel good" by vilifying someone, and yet doesn't force us to justify our own sins committed for the sake of convenience nor does it force us to look on our own individual sins or our cultural soul and wonder what we have become.