...When All is Said and Dunn

It’s always a tragedy when a child or young person is injured or dies. Nothing is more devastating to a parent, family, or friends than the loss of someone near and dear. Even if you didn’t know the person personally, the loss of any one young can cause you to feel great sorrow.

Especially when it is caused by something senseless or preventable, you are left wondering what could have caused such a thing. We fantasize of ways to correct the catastrophe and shake our heads in disbelief as we try to come up with a way to deal with the blow.

But what has become more and more “in vogue” over the last few years is to place the blame on whatever is convenient. From parents of victims to the religious right to smarmy reptilian politicians, everyone wants a scapegoat. They try to point the bony finger of blame at whatever is available, much like the grim reaper identifying his next victim.

I can understand a parent’s grief after a tragedy and their wanting to find an antagonist. Especially when it is a situation where the fatal blow is in no way the fault of the victim, they need closure. But in some cases they end up blaming the wrong perpetrator. Instead of blaming the gun-wielding deranged maniac that pulled the trigger, they go after the music that these twisted wretches were listening to at the time.

Granted, even these demented terrorists sometime reference musical lyrics in written notes and videotaped ramblings after the fact. They use quotes from songs that in their warped vision of the world are speaking directly to them. If they are letting song lyrics dictate their actions, the wiring upstairs is the problem, not the music they are listening to.

It’s all part of the blame game. Everybody has to have someone or something to blame all of their woes on. Well, let’s cut to it: It’s not Judas Priest, Ozzy Osborne, The Beatles or even that hate-monger Eminem. They are not mailing their albums directly to the consumers and forcing them to listen to them. There is no grand scheme in the music industry to brainwash the youth of America into becoming mass murderers and psycho killers. It is the individual, not the music or the artist.

Let’s assume, just for a moment, it is the music that brainwashes these young people into committing horrendous crimes. How come these parents are never to blame for allowing their children to listen to the music in the first place? Why are they letting their children watch TV that they then blame for their children’s actions? Let’s put blame where blame needs to be put, on the parents!

Trying to blame the artist for the actions of the listening and viewing public is downright absurd. They are no more responsible for the actions of the people listening to or watching their art than a gun is responsible for killing someone. It’s the person behind the gun that commits the crime, not the gun itself. The whole concept is ludicrous. It’s like trying to blame the earthquake in India on sitar music.

There are more focus groups doing studies on things than there are problems in the world. Almost everything is fair game--video games, movies, books, television, you name it and somebody is going to do a study on it. And of course, as with anything, if you look long enough you will find a problem.

If there wasn’t a problem there before, you better believe that they will come up with one. Just think about it. Every time we turn on a news program we are being told of the inherent dangers associated with a product or an activity we like to do. So what do we do? Well of course we cut off that avenue of pleasure out of fear of hurting ourselves. A few months later we find out that not only was the food or activity safe, it was actually good for us.

It reminds me of the Woody Allen movie “Sleeper”. When he wakes up in the distant future he finds out that everything that we were warned about in the past that was supposed to be was bad for us, like tobacco and red meat, was really good for us.

The latest entry in the blame game is so crazy that when I heard it on the news I thought it was a joke. Currently on MTV there is a show called “Jackass.” A more appropriately named show you could not find. The show consists of people doing some of the most inane and insane things imaginable. Some are just gross, and some just blatantly stupid. Personally I can’t even watch the damn thing because I find it so stupid.

Recently one of the stunts had a guy, in a fire retardant suit, attach steaks to himself and lie down on a barbecue to cook the steaks, and in the process he sets himself on fire. Don’t ask me why. To me, the concept wasn’t funny or witty in the least. But apparently a 16-year old boy who saw the show thought
so, because he thought it would be a good idea to try it. The one little part of the equation he seemed to forget was the fire retardant suit. He also seemed to have some sort of comprehension problem as well. Because multiple times during the program and in writing on the screen prior to the stunt, there were warnings not to attempt this at home. There was also a verbal warning afterwards saying the same thing and being said by the guy who did the stunt.

But this moron went right ahead and did it anyway and burned himself severely in the process. Immediately his mom jumps into action, blaming MTV for her son’s stupidity and demanding that the show be removed from the air. Personally I wouldn’t care if it was, but the fact remains that it wasn’t MTV who strapped the steaks to him and helped him onto the grill.

If the mom is looking for someone to blame, I have two suggestions of where she can look. First, look at your son, and if that doesn’t do it for her, have her look in the mirror.

The Shrub (aka George W) Speaks: “I am mindful not only of preserving executive powers for myself, but for my predecessors as well.” Washington, D.C., January 29, 2001