Seneca: Your father sewed up more parricides in sacks…

There is a strange danger in making every bad act famous. We imagine that elaborate rules, detailed warnings, and public outrage will discourage wrongdoing. Sometimes they do. But they can also make an idea more visible, more imaginable, and more available to people who had never considered it. Our attention is not neutral. What we repeat becomes part of the culture. This is true in a family, a workplace, and online. If every conversation centers on betrayal, cheating, cruelty, and scandal, those things begin to seem normal simply because they are everywhere. The goal is not denial or silence when a real problem needs addressing. It is proportion. Do not let the worst behavior set the agenda for everyone else. Give more attention to the standards you want people to imitate. We become shaped by what we continually put before our minds.