If he’d faced #MeToo, Puccini would be banned

Caranome says:

To judge all recorded history by a movement started 2 years ago by privileged and victim-prone American women is absolutely ignorant and ridiculous. Mark my words, I am predicting some woke scold would want to ban Don Giovanni or Tosca one day, charging they celebrate sexism and violence against women blah blah stupid…Or stage a “feminist” version that would be absolutely butchered and unlistenable.

Sharon says:

In my opinion the “me too” movement is legitimate but like anything else sometimes the innocent go down with the guilty, unfortunately.

I am hoping that becoming conscious of me too will encourage more communication i.e. asking “May I kiss you?” rather than just doing it and will also encourage people not to intimately involve themselves with anyone in a professionally or educationally subordinate position and thus will cut down on abuses.

In a similar way, the fact that parents and teachers have become more conscious of child abuse and the fear of child abuse charges has probably led to less child abuse that is, corporal punishment, which has probably led to fewer runaways.

However, I do fear that instead the “me too” movement will be a flash in the pan and 4 or 5 years from now things will be business as usual.

As far as Puccini is concerned if I recall there was also some dysfunction in his daughter’s marriage concerning sexual infidelity (I do not remember the details). Was it related to Puccini’s behavior? I do not know but “children learn what they live”. If one is around sexual infidelity one learns the behavior.

I have read that Donald Trump jr. who was a teenager when his father, the US president, got involved with Marla Maples and divorced his mother, was quite upset about it. However, although he has five minor children, Donald jr. was unfaithful to his wife, getting involved in an affair with a conservative political commentator (I forget the name) and is now traveling the US with her campaigning for Republican congressional candidates.

When I was a caseworker in child support enforcement I would frequently ask the custodial parent which was generally the mother about the type of home her irresponsible ex (the father who was not supporting the kids) came from. Generally the deadbeat Dad did not have a responsible father either.

My point is that, right or wrong, people are probably more likely to imitate their parents’ dysfunctional behavior rather than use it as a warning and avoid it. Even those who may try at first to behave in different ways eventually become sucked into it, unfortunately.

I have studied the life and work Gore Vidal (I do not want to get into a debate about his anti Zionism here). Until he was around 40 he was largely a teetotaler because of what alcoholism did to his mother. During this time he did his best work.

By the time Vidal was 50 he had become a severe alcoholic and the quality of his work slowly declined. Also related to his alcoholism was that he became hypersensitive, never letting go of a grudge, and somewhat paranoid.

The Bible says that punishment for sin lasts until the third and fourth generation. Psychologists and social workers can tell you that this happens naturally as effects selfish, dysfunctional behavior last through several generations.