A mother was told by a daycare worker that her son had been driving a toy car when he shouted at his playmates, “Get out of my way, idiots!” It was a wakeup call for the toddler’s mom, who got verbally irritated while driving.

Parrots also love to mimic and their owners consider it a sign of intelligence when they do, even when the bird repeats insults.

Unfortunately mimicking bad behaviour isn’t confined to parrots and pre-schoolers. Adults not only excel at it, but often consider their bad behaviour as a sign of intelligence.

The crude name calling by comedian Samantha Bee is a good example. While no one should be blasted with such demeaning verbiage (much less the president’s daughter), other entertainers followed right along. Jon Stewart offered her his support.

[emember_protected for=”2″ custom_msg=’For more on this story, please see the Jun. 15 print edition of The Cross Roads.’]

Actress Sally Fields not only condoned the comedian’s crudeness, but added her own verbal sewage. There was little public reprimand, however Ms Bee received an award shortly afterward.

Actor Robert De Niro followed, spewing a four-letter tirade against the president at the Tony Awards, and an audience of adults awarded him with a standing ovation. It appears the entertainment industry could use some help.

Much like the story of a man who was robbed, brutally beaten, and lay unconscious. A psychologist came by, rushed up to him and exclaimed, “Oh my! Whoever did this really needs help!” And our famous entertainers could benefit from the help of well known Canadian psychologist and university professor, Jordan Peterson, who offers some helpful lessons:

  • Treating others like they matter results in a functional society.
  • Do the right thing when the opportunity presents itself.
  • Practise not saying things you know to be false. Peterson says thousands of people contact him, saying they practiced this rule and it really works.
  • Assume the person you’re listening to might know something you don’t, because you want to be continually transformed. He says meaningful conversation is transforming conversation. He notes that a huge part of being a psychologist involves listening and learning how to help his clients.
  • You don’t want to win a disagreement; you want to fix the problem. That is the winning.
  • If we didn’t all make terrible things worse than they are, maybe we could make the world a better place. It’s what we should be doing, because we don’t have anything better to do.

It seems to me the right thing to do when the opportunity presents itself at the Academy Awards and Tony Awards would be to gift each guest with a book by Canadian psychologist Peterson, 12 Rules for Life. They could learn a lot from a Canadian.

[/emember_protected] behaviour