It’s Not Their Job!

Last Updated on: 21st October 2013, 09:29 am

Ok, time to vent a little.

I just finished reading an article in which members of the RCMP as well as B.C.’s Solicitor-General John Les slammed the makers of the new movie “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift” for making a film that glorifies illegal street racing. They say that the movie’s producers are irresponsible for celebrating such a dangerous and deadly activity, and they worry that the film may cause people to take what they’re seeing in the theatres out to the car and onto the roads with them.

Lucas Black, one of the stars of the movie, quite rightly pointed out in response that “”The drifting and driving stunts in Tokyo Drift are amazing and they’re also fantasy, and that “city streets and highways are no place for reckless behaviour.” And just so we were perfectly clear about everything, he dropped this bit of knowledge on us as well. “Stunt driving belongs in the movies and not on city streets.”

That’s probably a slightly better response than “fuck you guys,” which had they gotten it, wouldn’t have been completely undeserved. Harsh yes, out of line, no.

Let’s look at the facts.

Every time a movie, television show or videogame comes out that touches a nerve with somebody who holds a little bit of power, we hear about it. And when we hear about it, we always hear about how horrible it is, and how soon enough it will be the ruination of society because, I suppose, we’re all too stupid to distinguish fantacy from reality. None of these people ever come right out and say that, but honestly, what other reason could there be? If there’s no danger that somebody might take things too far, why bother bringing it up? Why not spend the time and energy doing whatever it is you’re supposed to be doing for a living, which I guess in this case would be either mountedly policing or generally soliciting, however one goes about doing something like that. Or if you don’t want to do that, why not spend a little time figuring out how the world works. Maybe by doing that, you would realize that it isn’t the job of the Hollywood types to be our moral compass, it’s their job to entertain us in whatever manner they so choose. It then becomes the responsibility of the rest of us to be discerning in our entertainment decisions. You can’t expect anybody to make a movie and then tell his customers not to watch it, that’s just stupid. But what you can expect is that he will present us with the option, and that the savvy consumers will then decide what’s right for them and their families. It’s the same with pretty much everything else. If you like Brand X of milk but not brand Y, you buy brand X and leave Brand Y on the shelf. You have the choice, you make the choice, free will and democrasy triumph over the forces of well, people like you who don’t seem to want us to be able to make any sort of choice at all. It seems simple enough, I don’t understand why people can’t figure this out.

And on the issue of society being stupid, yeah, we are. Every one of us without exception has done at least 1 dumb thing. But as dense as most of us have ever been, a lot of us are intelligent enough to comprehend the concept of something like fiction. If you’re over the age of…let’s be generous and say 12, you’re probably well on your way to understanding the differences between real and make believe, at least I’d like to think so. So who does that leave as targets for these government warning messages? I hate to say it, but if you’re 33 and wondering how it is that the dogs in the Disney movies can speak better English than you can, the good ship Hope for the Future has sailed, and you showed up late for the boarding call. And that being the case, all that’s left for the protectors of law and good taste are a bunch of deaf ears, deaf ears who do well to remember that they exist from day to day, let alone interpret anything that anybody else might try to make them understand. Those who get it already get it, and those who don’t aren’t going to, or they’re children who will hopefully have it taught to them by a responsible influence as they grow and learn.

So please, stop wasting my time and yours. You’re not helping anybody now, and next time we have to have this discussion, and believe me, we will, nothing will have changed other than the target of your outrage.

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