I wish we lived in a society that glamourised virtue and service versus murderers and personage (I think as I scroll Netflixβs catalogue).
It is strange when you stop and look at what gets the cinematic treatment. We have endless documentaries about serial killers, con artists, cult leaders, dictators, and catastrophes. Entire industries are built around examining the worst things human beings have ever done.
Meanwhile, somewhere in Norway, there is probably a nurse who has worked night shifts for thirty years, held the hands of hundreds of frightened people, comforted grieving families, and never once appeared on television.
A teacher changes the trajectory of a childβs life.
A social worker prevents a suicide.
A neighbour shovels an elderly personβs driveway for ten winters.
A librarian helps a lonely teenager find a place they belong.
A grandmother teaches four generations how to mend clothes instead of throwing them away.
Those stories rarely get prestige documentaries.
Part of it is that humans are wired to notice danger. The murderer is unusual. The kind person is common. But when you really think about it, civilisation is held together almost entirely by ordinary acts of service. Not by the extraordinary acts of destruction.
There have been far more people who fed children than people who killed them.
More people who built houses than burned them down.
More people who healed than harmed.
The reason we are able to scroll Netflix at all is because millions of mostly decent people got up every day and did their jobs.
I suspect that is why stories like The Great British Bake Off feel oddly restorative. Nothing explodes. Nobody gets murdered. The dramatic tension is essentially, βOh dear, Kevinβs sponge collapsed.β Yet millions watch because underneath it is something we are starving for: competence, kindness, mentorship, craftsmanship, and people genuinely wanting each other to succeed.
Maybe virtue is less flashy than villainy, but it is infinitely more impressive.
A serial killer can ruin dozens of lives.
A good teacher can improve thousands.
One of those requires far more skill, discipline, patience, and character than the other.
And yet only one gets a six-part Netflix special.
