Friday, February 09, 2007

Hysteria and the Police State

I copied this text from CNN.com. Click the title of this post to follow the link:

Cartoon Network head steps down after Boston bomb scare furor
NEW YORK (CNN) -- The chief executive of the Cartoon Network resigned Friday after the network's guerilla marketing scheme for one of its cartoon characters went bad last week and led to a bomb scare in Boston that cost its parent companies millions of dollars.
In a letter to employees, Jim Samples wrote: "I deeply regret the negative publicity and expense caused to our company as a result of this campaign. As general manager of Cartoon Network, I feel compelled to step down, effective immediately, in recognition of the gravity of the situation that occurred under my watch."
Turner Broadcasting System and Interference Inc. agreed to pay $2 million to make amends for last Wednesday's bomb scare in Boston, the Massachusetts attorney general said Monday. Interference, a marketing company, hired people to place 40 light boards with the outline of a cartoon character in various places around Boston and nine other cities.
TBS is the parent company Cartoon Network and its Adult Swim group, which initiated the marketing scheme. It is also the parent company of CNN. --By CNN's Katy Byron (Posted 2:47 p.m.)


I always want to start a post like this by saying, "Words escape me," or, "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm speechless," but that's not the case at all. I have plenty to say, but my initial reaction is a dumbfounded stupor (for about 10 seconds.)

I'm so angry about this that I am struggling to find the words. I'll start by assigning letter grades for the participants in this non-event:

Residents of Boston: Grade F
Authorities in Boston: Grade T (for Tyranny)
Jim Samples: Grade C (for Cowardice)
Katy Byron: Grade H (for Hysterical media-babe)

I guess I'll work my way down the list.

To the citizens: What in the hell is wrong with you? What a pathetic, hysterical, blown-out-of-proportion response to a non-problem! Are you really that conditioned by your pathetic state government to not be responsible for your own safety that you crap yourself everytime you see something that seems out of sorts? Do you phone the police and ask them to roll SWAT if you see a kid with a BB gun shooting cans in his backyard? UNBELIEVABLE!

To the Only Ones: Nice job. Convince them that they need you - always. Even when advertising rears its ugly head. You've got your subjects pretty close to where any good group of tryants would want them. They can't even go to work without your hand-holding police-state presence.

To Jim Samples: Sorry response, there buddy. Majority rules, I guess - even when they're wrong. You should have taken the opportunity to issue a letter verbally smacking the Bostonians upside their collective head for their collective bed-wetting cowardice.

To Katy Byron: "...guerilla marketing scheme..."? Nice unbiased reporting there. You don't have an agenda do you?

Per usual, the media does its part to legitimize the government's heavy-handed jack-booted response to something that any idiot could have figured out had they wiped the tears from their hysterical eyes.

Good lord, we are doomed. We have an entire American city conditioned to respond with panic to the most insignificant of abnormalities. What's the big deal you ask?

What happens when one of these self-defacating ninnies encounters a crime in progress (mugging, rape, murder)? Will they step in and defend their families/neighbors/selves? Hell no! They'll dial 911 like good little sheep (while the victim dies) and laud the authorities if they manage to get there in time to save the wooly butts of their helpless dependants.

What we have here is a complete and total abdication of personal responsibility for one's safety, coupled with the State stepping in and affirming the populace's perceived helplessness.

It's too late for this group of morons to learn that as they hand over their responsibility to the State, their freedom goes with it. Or considering the sorry state of affairs right now (what with everyone breathing sighs of relief and patting each other on the back) they don't care.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I would just like to add an observation here. I check the blog daily, month after month after month. And not much has been added. I leave the country for two weeks and look who goes wild with the blogging. I think two things could be surmised here. 1) Your's truly has no life and proves it by the statement that I check your blog each day, hoping to read some rant about something I really know nothing about (guns). Or 2) You've had a bit more time on your hands lately and have keyed in on news that is really driving you nuts. Either way, I think the truth has finally come out.

17/2/07 1:46 AM  

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