I've been thinking a bit about why we openly celebrate the mistakes or "the fall" of others.
I know that I have not been exempt from this, especially in the past.

But once I saw it happen to someone I really really look up to, someone I really admire.
And I knew his side. He was struggling.
His mental problems were out on display for all to see,
and they mocked and ridiculed him relentlessly.
"Oh how the mighty have fallen!" they cheered.
They laughed while taking pictures and recording videos, sharing his lowest moment with the entire world.
They published this moment like an advertisement in newspapers.

I wanted to stand on a building with a microphone to defend him.
"You don't know him!" I'd say. "He's the kindest, most enthusiastic and uplifting soul."
But it wouldn't matter, because the damage was done.

And I had seen the other side of the fallen. I vowed to myself that I would never do that to anyone ever again. I would never be so unkind and unsympathetic.

I've noticed this thing that we do, (especially-mostly-with celebrities) where we find some twisted gratification in those who reveal their human flaws.
No matter what the circumstance-drugs, DUI's, affairs-we indulge and find pleasure in the faults of others.

Is it because it takes some sort of scandal for us to realize and understand that they are people, instead of the "perfect" public figures we've made them out to be?
What does this say about us as a culture that cares all too much about the private lives of the famous?