If you listen to any kind of top 40 radio, you've more than likely heard this song Foster the People's "Pumped Up Kicks". What you might not be aware of is the words.
To most people it describes one school shooting or another, with the main character also finishing off his dad as well. Some say that this is a song that promotes school violence in response to being bullied. Others that it is only trying to make us more aware. In various interviews, the band seems to give mixed signals on this as well.
Either way this is an important issue. The fact that some teens get to the point where they decide taking a weapon to school to use on their peers is extremely troubling. The aftermath of such a decision all the more so. Liberal forces within our country use it as an excuse to impose more government controls to limit our freedoms. Guns especially are targeted. But the guns aren't the issue.
The issue is that teens today see such violence as a possible way out, if their peers mistreat or don't accept them. Parts of society have taught them violence and even suicide are the ways out. But they aren't.
O we could blame the music, video games, TV, and movies that involve and maybe even encourage violence. But again, that's not the issue. Censoring the first amendment rights would be a wrong following a wrong, just as is attacking the second.
The issue is society and what it encourages and promotes. Games, music, TV, and movies only mirror what society accepts. O sometimes they'll be on the borders of acceptability, or maybe even beyond, but the majority only gives what is asked for. The real issue isn't what the song actually means, but what caused society to get to a place where it wants songs like that.
So how do we fix society? How do we keep another kid from going to school and shooting their classmates? How do we re instill morality and law?
No matter what, we can not do it by taking away freedoms. Any society that thinks it can save itself by doing so is sowing it's own down fall all the more.
Education, not just in schools but in values is the key. Without ethical values and morality being taught, society will crumble. History shows this time and time again. Will we repeat it? Or will we finally learn from the lessons of the past?
Great essay, Jonathan. While I haven't heard the song (this stuff they play on the radio these days - well, "bleh"), I know exactly the s.o.p. that you're describing here.
ReplyDeleteIt was illustrated infamously in Rahm Emmanuel's, "Never let a crisis go to waste" remark. I don't think the modern liberals are even Machiavellian in acting like this, as I think Machiavelli saw a crisis as a means to (eventually) make things better. Modern liberals are more like hyenas, watching ever so closely for a sign of a limping gazelle...
Well said, Jonathan.
ReplyDeleteso true, Jonathan. When people have the right moral foundation, and a strong one, they can take in any kind of "art" and message and not be swayed or influenced by it negatively. That's part of real maturity, versus censorship which essentially treating people like children unable to tell the difference between good & bad.
ReplyDeleteI believe part of the problem with the kind of escalation of violence you discuss is the zero tolerance policy most school districts have adopted in the last 15 to 20 years. The victim and the offender get the same punishment. The anti-bullying programs taught in the schools teach kids that they don't have the authority to defend themselves and have to get others to so this for them.
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