Mass public education can be a tricky thing. Take "What Would You Do", an Israeli TV show dedicated to rewarding the nation's most tenacious busybodies, which made of Yehud its most recent soapbox. The town being my new venue of employment, I happened to overhear one of the teachers praising two girls who appeared on the show (unwittingly, of course - its 'big brother'-type format meaning the show relies on hidden cameras). The girls, now about to graduate from high school, were students at the middle school and some of those present in the teachers' lounge remembered them.
Intrigued, I watched the episode online. Its somewhat dubious scenario went thusly: Three young men walk into a coffee shop in the center of town, instructed by the righteous Haim Hecht, who speaks before the camera with such conviction that it seems entirely possible he missed his calling as a Harlem preacher. Hecht, who mercilessly places the two innocent girls randomly in the crosshairs of his little social experiment, tells the actors to be seated at the next table. They sit, and immediately begin to talk about taking turns raping a poor innocent 15-year old not yet arrived on the scene. ("We'll get her drunk, I'll take her first, and then you, let's see how much of a man you are!") Their tones and diction resemble that of a Shakespearian Hamlet reciting his "To be or not to be" speech.
At first the two girls giggle, a response not entirely uncalled for, in my opinion. "Is this for real?" one asks the other.
No, my dear, it is not. You have been made a guinea pig without your awareness. Just sit there and attempt not to get arugula caught between your teeth, because you are, also unwittingly, being filmed for a national audience.
Soon the young men's prey arrives, and the girls bear witness to a whispered conversation between her and her 'boyfriend', who tells her not to be a child and come with them, despite the fact that she wants to be 'alone' with him.
The girls giggle again at the outlandish dialogue, which has been fine-tuned to form such a perfect example of good and evil that it would put Harry Potter to shame. Cut to Hecht, who laments that perhaps the girls do not understand the gravity of the situation.
"Let's give them another chance," he says magnanimously to the camera. "Perhaps they are afraid to make a move when the guys are there. Guys, step out so we can see what they do."
Inexplicably, the actors rise and leave their victim alone, muttering something about having to make a purchase at the corner shop. The other maintains she must make a telephone call, and when she is left alone the two lab rats take action.
"Listen, you shouldn't go with them," they advise her. "We overheard them talking about getting you drunk and raping you."
"Really?" the actress says with mock incredulity, then goes on to explain that she has to go, she loves him, bla bla bla.
Her 'boyfriend' returns, at Hecht's behest; he has hooked two fish, now he wants to see if he can reel them in . In other words, will they let her go with the 'rapists' or continue to attempt to "save her"? I have no idea what Hecht had in mind here... Perhaps the girls - whose width when placed side by side is just about equal to half that of the studly 'boyfriend' in question - were meant to beat up the actors and depart on a white horse, slut in tow?
In any case, our admirable host is in for a disappointment - the girls let her leave, though not without a strict warning, and are gently chastised by Hecht the moment they exit the cafe.
"This evening, Sapir (the 15-year old) will get raped. Did you do enough to save her?" he exhorts, as the two girls hang their heads in shame.
"Next time I won't let it go this way. I'll do everything in my power... It's just that nothing like this has ever happened to me before," says one of them, defensively.
Next time, indeed. Leaving aside, for a moment, the almost laughable unlikeliness that anyone will ever overhear three young men plainly discussing a rape plot in the middle of a coffee shop, in tones meant for a studio audience, and suspend our disbelief, for Haim Hecht's sake. But even with this in mind, the show propagates a number of dangerous beliefs and behaviors, precisely the type of beliefs and behaviors that brought us the death of Trayvon Martin so recently. Preaching of Hecht's kind creates civilian 'heroes' for whom the street is nothing less than a Hollywood set, of which they are the star. Indeed, there is genuine call for this view, for Hecht's set is the street, his scenarios, unlikely as they appear to anyone mature enough to know that life is not entirely black and white, bring to life the 'damsel in distress' fantasy that is the stuff of our most potent dreams, and quite a large number of silly American movies.
To think that by chasing her (or her future attackers) down the girls could "save" little Sapir is a perilous misconception. I have worked with teenagers long enough, both in public schools and in a program designed for teenage prostitutes, to know that all of the instruments of the welfare state put together cannot "save" her. Young girls who enter willingly into such situations require lengthy psychological treatment delving into the episode, or multiple episodes, in their youth in which an uncle offered them candy to sit on his knee, or a neighbor touched them inappropriately while helping them off the swing. To pass off to the public that what ails such young women can be immediately remedied by anyone on the street is to plant dangerous and narcissistic notions in the heads of many naive people. Also, it completely ignores the real issues that put those girls in such situations to begin with. For them, the real rape has already taken place, is taking place in far too many homes across the nation. To "save" them in the manner Hecht proposes is to spit rather indecorously in their faces.
Me, I find myself wishing that instead of focusing on preposterous situations with the statistical likeliness of lightning striking one's head, Hecht would use his noxious notoriety to perform some far more necessary and edifying experiments.
A few lessons in politeness, for example, are something I find lacking in my home country. Rather than increase the average Israeli's already obsessive need to stick his or her nose in other people's business, why not teach the advantages of improving oneself first?
Picture a line at the bank, or the post office, in which people wait agitatedly for one snooty clerk, who is of course occupied more avidly by her nails than the large population currently depending on her efficiency.
Then picture Hecht, in his mobile editing van, asking the camera, "What would you do? Could you wait patiently for your turn to arrive, or would you surrender to the rude impulses of the masses?"
Cut in line, and Hecht pulls you out of the bank with a wagging of his obnoxious finger. Sir, you failed the test, he tells you before the camera and the world. Yell at the clerk and you are chastised on national television, all while realizing that the entire country just caught you surreptitiously picking your nose on hidden camera.
Or take another scenario, a business meeting, for example. Can you wait until your coworker finishes speaking before cutting her off like a chauvinist asshole? No? You get a good verbal spanking by the omniscient Hecht. On the other hand, offer to get the secretary a cup of coffee for once ("You deserve it too, every once in a while," you say to her incredulity) and the entire nation suddenly thinks very highly of you. Perhaps you even get stopped and congratulated on the street.
As an educator, these are the things for which I tend to reward my students. Simple, daily acts of kindness.
Perhaps Hecht would find such a show boring, but I have a feeling he would be the first on the show to get a good wag of my finger.
