- "The function of science fiction is not always to
predict the future but sometimes to prevent it." - Frank Herbert,
author of the Dune chronicles
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- Bestselling horror author Stephen King is loathe to grant
interviews. As he has written in countless Forwards of his popular novels,
journalists "who should really know better" never fail to ask
the most asinine question of all: "Where do you get your ideas?"
The question implies that a writer can make withdrawals from the magical
"idea bank" when the natural well spring of his imagination runs
dry. Actually, that may not be far from the truth. As King himself wrote,
"...great ideas are not so much invented as discovered."
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- I've often wondered about the role of the collective
unconscious in the creative process. Perhaps this could account for the
apparently unintentional ability of some fiction writers to predict the
future. The last few years must have King feeling like Nostradamus.
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- In the late 60's, while King was still in high school,
he wrote the shocking novella Rage, a story whose protagonist is a psychotic
young man who takes his father's gun to school and murders his teachers
and principal. After the string of school shootings in the 90's (including
two instances when the killers cited King's book as inspiration), King
voluntarily took Rage out of distribution. On the issue of media influence
on youth violence, King once said, "Marilyn Manson and Metallica never
caused anyone to kill...but these things act as accelerants."
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- But other early writings of King (Bachman) have proved
even more prescient. Two Bachman novellas, The Long Walk and The Running
Man, tell stories of a bleak and once unthinkable future that is unquestionably
coming to fruition.
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- In the alternative universe of The Long Walk, the USA's
most celebrated national sport/cultural event/pastime is a grisly endurance
event where the participants compete for their very lives. Young men VOLUNTARILY
sign on for The Long Walk, a race to the death where 100 teenagers begin
walking and do not stop until they get their respective "tickets."
Getting a "ticket" results from dropping below the minimum walking
speed of four MPH a total of four times in less than one hour. But a "ticket"
is not so much a "ticket" as a bullet to the brain. The race
continues until one boy is left walking. This lucky young chap will receive
a mysterious reward known only as The Prize.
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- The boys who choose to compete in the Long Walk are celebrated
as true "patriots." They are "honored" to be gunned
down by rifle-toting Army automatons in front of a national TV audience.
The boys cry, plead, clutch cramped legs, and beg for mercy from the placid
soldiers...all of whom carry out their "orders" with stoic efficiency.
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- Ratings for the Long Walk, and the resulting advertising
revenue, are truly astronomical.
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- The Running Man tells an equally cruel, though slightly
less stomach churning, tale. Its protagonist is Benjamin Richards, an out
of work breadwinner for a family of two, unemployed in a barren economy
and forced to risk his life on a macabre game show called The Running Man.
Richards' task is to elude capture for 30 days from law enforcement and
a group of trackers called The Hunters. Citizens are told that Richards
is a criminal, and will receive cash rewards as "patriots" if
they turn him in. If Richards remains free for 30 days, his prize is a
billion dollars. If he gets caught, he gets executed in the most violent
manner imaginable on national television.
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- The world of the Running Man is worse than an Orwellian
nightmare. Huge chemical companies (including the aptly named Raygon Chemical)
have poisoned the atmosphere so severely that young children are dying
of lung cancer. Only the wealthy can afford to breathe healthy air, provided
by "nose filters" which run at several thousand dollars a pop
(the secret is, nose filters can be made by anyone for a few dollars of
cheap material.)
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- The ending of the Running Man features a chilling synchronism.
Richards faces a choice of either joining the evil Network which poisons
the air and broadcasts the Running Man...or he can die and take down as
many "bad guys" as possible. He hijacks a plane and flies it
into the Network's corporate headquarters, the tallest tower in downtown
New York. (By the way, if you think I'm implying that the victims of 9/11
were "bad guys," or that the terrorists were "heroes,"
THINK AGAIN!)
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- As recently as 10 years ago, King's scenarios, while
undeniably chilling, seemed little more than unmitigated fantasy. Could
anyone imagine a world where Americans would stand by and cheer while human
beings were slaughtered for sheer entertainment? A recent trend in American
media proves that King's speculation was not only plausible, but shockingly
fortuitous.
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- In 2004, the highest rated network television shows are
so-called REALITY programs. This trend began in the late 90's, when CBS
brought us the immensely popular Survivor series. This show features very
attractive people walking around scantily clad on a desert island, nearly
starving to death, battling for food and other goodies in inane "competitions"
such as eating giant worms and walking on hot coals, and generally conniving,
plotting, and scamming one another for the best chance to stay on the show
and win a million bucks. Indeed, the "winner" of Survivor has
often been the biggest jerk who was most adept at forming sinister plots.
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- Survivor creator Mark Burnett has come under scathing
criticism for his latest proposed "reality" program. Burnett
has pitched to CBS a show called Recovery, which will feature real-life
"investigations" and man-hunts into active missing children cases.
The people conducting the "hunts" will not be professional law
enforcement, but independent bounty hunters and private investigators.
CBS' preliminary publicity material describes the show as taking "viewers
along on an emotional and life-changing ride, from the abduction to the
search in all its intensity to the reunion of child and parents."
Child advocacy groups are generally appalled by the concept.
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- "The idea for Mark Burnett's new reality show of
snatching children sickens me," said Lindsey Brooks, investigating
manager for Child Quest International in Campbell, Calif.
- "These children he plans to recover have already
been extremely emotionally damaged by being abducted. Now Burnett wants
to exploit them by being on a TV show." (Source: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/artsentertainment/2001902312_recovery14.html)
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- At least Recovery would have the redeeming value of attempting
to save real children. Other "reality" shows have plumbed the
depths of mankind's potential for sadism and cruelty. The "entertainment"
of these shows is provided by the physical, emotional, and spiritual anguish
of its participants, many of whom are 100% non-consenting.
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- The highest rated television show in the USA is American
Idol, a "talent" competition for aspiring young dancers and singers.
The real "entertainment" of the show is provided by judge Simon
Cowell, who verbally disembowels the show's participants with allegedly
"humorous" insults. Heavy metal artist Ozzy Osbourne had this
to stay about the viciously acerbic Cowell: "I'd like to see that
f*cking guy have a go at it, see how it feels."
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- Other FOX reality shows have not only pushed but torn
through the envelope of bad taste. Joe Millionaire featured vapid young
women competing to "win" a million dollars by being chosen as
the bride of a super rich guy. The joke was, he was completely broke!
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- Another FOX show, My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance, featured
an even more sadistic premise. A beautiful young woman is told she can
split a million bucks with a fat, repulsive man if they both convince their
families they are engaged to be married. The joke is, the guy is an actor,
so the real object of ridicule is the greedy, blushing bride. The young
woman may be held accountable for her own vacuity, but the woman's FAMILY
were unwitting and non-consenting victims. The show's "entertainment"
was the tearful, horrified, grief-stricken reactions of her siblings and
parents to the "fat, obnoxious fiance." MBFOF's crescendo, a
desperate confession by the make-believe couple, was one of the most discomfiting
displays in the history of television. The young woman blubbered her apologies
to her shell-shocked family, begging their forgiveness for the despicable
sham.
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- FOX's capacity for repugnant exploitation is apparently
without limit. The latest FOX reality show, called The Swan, offers free
plastic surgery to "homely" women in an attempt to make them
"beautiful." The "most beautiful" of the mutilated
women will compete in a beauty pagent in the show's climax. But as we hear
in the trailer for this FOX gem, "...not everyone will be good enough
to make the cut."
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- But even more disturbingly, some new reality shows not
only push and cross the bounds of good taste, but actually physically endanger
their unwitting, non-consenting "participants." On the Sci-Fi
channel's Scare Tactics, individuals are set up by their "friends"
for extraordinarily ghoulish and realistic pranks. The majority of these
victims are actually led to believe their lives are in danger. In one episode,
a group of friends in a car pick up a mysterious hitchhiker, only to see
him turn violent and attack the driver with a knife. Not surprisingly,
the "mark" in the back seat, believing his friend is being murdered,
pummels the poor actor with a knife into submission. Another Scare Tactic
prank went even more terribly wrong, and has resulted in litigation. A
Los Angeles woman named Kara Blanc sued the cable channel for "severe
emotional damage and injuries incurred as a result," after a prank
in which Blanc ran naked through a desert canyon, believing she was being
chased by aliens who had murdered her friends. (Link: <http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,11298,00.html>
)
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- Season 3 of Scare Tactics has featured the most vicious
pranks to date. In Epsiode 2, a group of young men out for a joy ride get
pulled over by the "cops." The young "mark" witnesses
one of his friends (an accomplice) flee from the "police," only
to be shot in the back by a remorseless officer. The "mark" says
tearfully to the cop, "I can't believe you just shot that kid!"
The officer then directs the young man to "turn his back," to
which the boy replies, "You're gonna shoot me, aren't you?" The
officer then trains his gun directly on the boy and says, "I'm gonna
do what I have to do." But NEVER FEAR, young man! Seconds later,
he was given the delightful news, "You're on SCARE TACTICS!"
Har-de-har-har, indeed....
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- Predictably, some moronic and highly impressionable people
have tried to imitate the antics seen on Scare Tactics in real life. In
Ohio in October of 2003, a young woman set up her "best friend"
to be kidnapped by two men and dragged into a field at gunpoint. The men
proceeded to "murder" their female accomplice, then held a gun
to the victim's head...and began counting down. After reaching "one,"
they yelled out, "Happy Halloween! You're on Scare Tactics!"
Not surprisingly, neither the victim nor Ohio authorities were amused by
this horrific prank, and the perpetrators, if convicted, will face one
to five years behind bars. (Link: <http://www.onnnews.com/story.php?record=27472>
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- It is understandable why so many networks are seeking
to profit from the hugely popular reality craze. With no actors, directors,
or writers to pay, these shows have ridiculously low production costs,
almost always turning an enormous profit. Reality shows are a source of
frequent "water cooler discussions," and are even the subject
of "reports" on many network news casts. Even if you don't watch
these shows, you can keep abrest of "story" developments by tuning
in to Tom Brokaw or Dan Rather on a nightly basis.
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- If "reality" programs are a source of "entertainment"
for you and your family, you must understand one thing: taking pleasure
in the suffering of others is a form of MENTAL ILLNESS called SADISM. Watch
these shows if you like, but as you guffaw at the sight of innocent, unwilling,
non-consenting humans suffering enormous mental and physical anguish, take
a moment to look in the mirror, and ask yourself if you like what you see.
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- Recent Hollywood films Gladiator and The Passion of the
Christ have shed light on the extraordinary cruelty of the Roman Empire.
Public torture, execution, and sacrifice of human beings was the preferred
form of entertainment for the Romans. Many have compared current trends
in American culture to the last days just before Rome fell. Some even say
that no culture in the history of the world has ever recovered from the
depth of decay we are currently experiencing in American society.
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- Saturday, April 17th, marks the beginning of National
Turn Your TV Off Week in my home town of Portland, OR. Far be it from me
to tell anyone how to spend their free time, but might I suggest that you
use this week as an opportunity to TUNE OFF your TV, and TUNE IN to the
greatest reality show of all, called REAL LIFE.
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- COMING SOON: A "skeptical" website like no
other...Exposing dogmatic claims on both sides of the paranormal issue...Debuting
the first week of May, 2004: True Skeptic, by Michael Goodspeed. www.trueskeptic.com
Stay Tuned...
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