A modest proposal

So William Bennett is under attack for some rather touchy comments he made late last month. And the world has reacted basically the way they always do, by taking the most interesting few seconds of his speech (called a "soundbyte"), and spreading just that bit, sans context, around the airwaves.

Meanwhile, Jack Thompson is pissing off the nerdy videogame-playing pseudo-intellectuals, by challenging a gaming company (any gaming company, he includes) to the creation of an intentionally violent game.

Both of these people are in hot water, because they risked something very valuable, their "cred", for a particularly vibrant comment in the media. They both intended to get everyone's attention--make people stop and say "oh my god, he's right..."--in that classic Jonathan Swift way. They said something satirical. And we didn't get it.

The folks at Penny Arcade (a comic that I love dearly) are in a sort of print-based quarrel with Thomspon over the lack of the others' class. Or morals. Or basic sanity. Jack Thompson wrote his proposal to shock us, by taking everything that violent videogames are these days, and pushing it one step further. In this way, he wanted to point out that the line between fact and joke are blurring. That something as aweful as he mock-suggests could, indeed come to light, and that we are all to blame for it. Or something.

Now, by no means do I think videogames are too violent. I'm all for shocking art, and I'm all for hyper-realistic entnertainment. I think people are smart enough to distinguish between why the game is cool, and why recreating events within the game are NOT cool. And, obviously there are people who don't distinguish, and that's what you hear about on the news, and that's why Hilary Clinton is so grumpy these days. But surely, this doesn't mean we should stop making games liek this! Oops, Charles Manson killed a bunch of people in the name of a Paul McCartney song, better put a stop to rock and roll... or maybe just to Manson... hmmm...

As Tycho (from Penny Arcade) points out, it's the parents' job to police what kids play, not the government's, or the lawyers'. So, what right does Thompson have to say anything? Well, at this stage, he's just making his social commentary. He doen't want anyone to ACTUALLY make his horrific game treatment. And he isn't putting any force against the powers that keep making games like this. He's appealing to the common sense in all of us, by taking it one step too far, and waiting for us to feel guilty. Just like Jonothan Swift did.

AND YET the nerds are making that annoying, high-pitched wine that means they're mad about something. Or they need some Taco Bell. They're bitching that Thomspon won't honor any intent to make his suggested game. Well fucking DUH!!! If everyone had started eating babies, would Swift have leaned back in his recliner, satisfied with the power of his pen? Get a fucking clue, idiots.

Meanwhile, Bennett even said "aborting all the black babies is obviously a horrible thing to do" (that was a paraphrase) right after his grotesque comment, and yet people are STILL waving their arms wildly, running around outside his house, shrieking about his racism. People just love to get pissed off.

Both of these poor idiots made the mistake of not being careful enough. They both said very tasteless things, with vague motives. Anyone who has witnessed this kind of thing happening before should know to qualify EVERYTHING THEY SAY. But isn't it time, in this post-modern era of knowing the difference between a madman and a Family Guy bit, to stop, and consider the intent of what someone says, objectively? I both disagree with Thompson's underlying motives, AND feel sorry for his poorly executed shock-proposal. I am both mistrustful of Bennett's lumping together of crime and blacks, AND impressed with his ability to seperate the effects of freedom of abortion, from the plight of low-income families. And my point is that it's fucking time for everyone to be able to do that. It's become KEY to be able to analyze the components within the whole. And if you can't, step away from the adults table Donny, you're out of your element.