Willful blindness was why we didn’t see Cosby as creepy before. It was why many people had never heard of these accusations: because the media forgot about them, too. Nobody wanted to believe this about America’s favorite dad. Powerful people in Hollywood felt it was to their financial benefit to overlook it. Now, suddenly, it is not.

(Click pic for the full editorial.)

What I'm about to opine is not a defense of Bill Cosby; rather, it's a condemnation of the industry of which he is a part or, for that matter, any place in society that allows a person to presume they are immune from the consequences of their wrongdoing. We've seen it before in the entertainment industry, and we'll see it again, just as we've witnessed horrible accounts come to light in the political, religious, law-enforcement, and military arenas in a neverending slideshow of insanity.

The only way anything will ever change is if society stops glorifying money over ethics, and endeavour to create a reality where those who cannot boast a lofty station can still expect the benefit of the doubt, and those who had previously always enjoyed the luxury of being above the law are held accountable for their crimes.  Only then will the next Michael Brown not get gunned down in broad daylight and the next Cosby or Stephen Collins pay for the damage they've done to women, children, and a generation's trust.

If that happened, perhaps those who are trying to feed the homeless would no longer be arrested and tried for the transgression of kindness, while others are celebrated in the media for having litters of children on a planet struggling to sustain the life already here, or still others bask in the knowledge that their activities in human trafficking and child molestation will almost always remain unknown because they are influential/rich enough to maintain a convenient invisibility.

Do I ever see that happening? Will the Pat Robertsons, Mama Junes, and Dr. Ozs carry on, business as usual, as they laugh at our obvious willingness to be duped? Will public acts of affection between Gays continue to be demonised while adoration of all things martial in nature is endlessly encouraged? Will we learn before we end up destroying ourselves and countless other truly innocent Earthlings?

Bill Cosby is not an exception, he's the rule. And most everyone is too stupid or too afraid to acknowledge that, because it would mean we'd have to take a good long look at ourselves in that mirror, and ask ourselves if we would have done the same thing, if we thought we could get away with it.