All entries for Tuesday 12 April 2005

TriPost (the third one)

Hello again.

Karl Marx, antithetical as he was, once said that Religion is the opiate of the masses. Ever since then the phrase, like most good soundbytes, has become a template for opinions. Searching around, I found that apparantly:

Sport is the opiate of the masses
Football is the opiate of the masses
Television is the opiate of the masses
Voting is the opiate of the masses
'hipness' is the opiate of the masses…

the list goes on and on. But I'm here, typing right now (as one would expect) to present you with my own theory, using Karl's fine template:

OPINION 3: Hypocricy is the Opiate of the Masses

People nowadays are empowered with strength they cannot handle, and frankly should not have. Violent people are allowed to drink. Yobbish people are allowed to attend football matches. People who do not know how to handle their money have too much money. Every one of them loves it, as much as they love to complain about wanting more.

More. The one thing that every single person seems to want. They cannot responsibly use what they have, but they want more of it. It isn't, however, their fault when you question why they want more money even though it's to come from people less fortunate than themselves. It isn't their fault that they blame mobile phone signals for sickess of their children while feeding them enough E-numbers to send a Sloth into hyperactivity. It 's the school's fault that their children are roudy and ill-behaved – not that they shout and ball… no, it comes as a shock when their kids start emulating them by shouting back at them. My children aren't my fault. It's the schools/television/friends/lack of community facilites/computer games/violent films…. pick your favourite, there's enough for everybody. My child's input is COMPLETELY beyond my control. I let my kids stay out all night and drink, dressed like a whore. I can't understand why they're getting in trouble! It's NOT MY FAULT!

Hypocrisy is more popular than ever. Explaining away your sins and transgressions is a tried and tested philosophy that the British hold dear.

Hypocrisy n., pl. -sies.

1. The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness.
2. An act or instance of such falseness.

Directly after the latest school shooting in America, a man I trust and respect decided he wanted to use this oppertunity to attack something I enjoy – violent video games. It was the fault of these evil games! The kid pointed to a game and said "I'm going to do that!"... it's obvious what's at fault here. When I pointed out that I played these games his retort was that I was mentally stable. Hmmnn… maybe it was his mental stability that was at fault? Well, the man explained that it was a contributing factor to his behaviour (not the fault of the game entirely).

I pointed out that millions of people worldwide play violent video games and yet there are surprisingly few shootings. His retort was that America has the guns to support school shootings unlike us. Hmmmn… maybe it's the fault of gun control and not violence in video games? It makes no matter, the man explained, we still have knifings.

I went on to explain that this violence happens in movies, on television, even on stage. Every day we see violent images on the news. His retort was that those could be contributing factors too, but games still featured their part.

I went on to explain how most people who play violent video games are older than those who perform school shootings – how no school shooting has been directly linked to violent video games – how violent crime spans the board of people who play games and who don't… and then I asked what evidence he based his assumption that "video games caused this school shooting". He heard it on the news.

It was later discovered the shooter was a neo-nazi with posts on nazi websites and forums, explaining his frustration at society for their views on him.

… a long-winded story, but what does this have to do with hypocrisy?

Months later, I attacked football as a source of violence. This isn't the untracable violence we don't see attaching itself to the evil videogames industry – this is violence we see after matches, when people in football uniforms (they call them strips, but that's spin for you) attack each other in the streets. Not all, obviously, but the game does cause violence.

Then there's the fact it rips people off – because it's a million pound industry. The players are given vast sums of money, despite an obvious lack of intelligence and civilisation, to spend on drugs and women – while a nurse or doctor spending their time saving the lives of hypocrites (read "civilians") makes – frankly – a pittance.

Then of course the hooliganism of the british is famous. What kind of country wants people like this associated with them? Not myself, certainly. And anyone who gets drunk, goes to "the football" (the game is implied, I think) and then gets into a fight deserves to be shot. The game is violent. it's bad international press. It causes mistrust, broken marriages and hatred.

He became very defensive – as I did with video games – and told me that I couldn't say those things. I wasn't allowed. "and I like it", he added.

So… it's okay to attack something you don't like – but if you want it you keep it then how DARE YOU SAY SUCH THINGS ABOUT MY BELOVED (something I want). No matter what a drag on society, civilisation and the progression of humanity it is.

What better example of hypocrisy is there?

As you know, I believe in providing an antidote to these sort of problems. Logic. It's as simple as that. Any failure to abide by laws of simple logic will be harshly dealt with. I don't care if you're trying to prove that Hitler was a black jew – as long as you give an argument with cojent logical resolve. That – surely – is the essence of questioning our existance and modern philosophical debate. Knowledge that expands minds, and is the yardstick for a civilised society, ever since the days of Socrates.

So quite simply, repeated failure to abide by logical arguments will result in execution. A trained team – the Logic Squad – come to your house, drag you out and shoot you in the head. Leaving you to bleed on your front lawn.

With my most hypocritical thanks,

Peace, y'all.

: 12 Apr 2005 21:52 |  Tags: Dpoh |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem