not I not I not I

[intertribal]

I think this is true of all online social media, but the amount of bad asses on YouTube is really quite amazing.  This is evident on movies like Storm of the Century.  If you are not familiar, that's the Stephen King teledrama where an island community is terrorized by a wizard/demon/evil spirit (Andre Linoge) during a blizzard, forcing them to make the choice between: a) giving the evil wizard one of the town's children, and b) all dying, including the children (well, presumably.  They all believe this will happen because the evil wizard certainly seems to be capable of it).  In the story, the town decides by majority vote on Choice A.  Through random draw (maybe) the evil wizard takes the child of the one guy (Mike) who wants to do Choice B (while his wife Molly agrees on Choice A).  It's all very sad and tragic.  The narrative is sympathetic to everyone involved, and takes pains to explain why the townspeople made Choice A, even though it's the wrong choice.

But YouTube users want you to know that they would NEVER HAVE MADE THIS CHOICE NEVER EVER:

• I would have stood along with Mike. Good always wins out. The townspeople should have all taken a stand against the evil.
• I would walk off the end of the earth before I gave a kid away to demon
• i cant believe that these people would do something like that
• michael anderson you are the man!!! his stupid ass cunt wife didnt even stand behind him that shows you that she didnt love her son that hard. respect to michael at least your son will know that you stood behind him and these people are so stupid
• At least Michael did try to get his son out of this like any good father will.
• I`d say, better to all die there and then with the possibility of all going to Heaven, rather than living longer but knowing you sent a child to Hell.
• i would of took my child and left too he had a gun i would of shot my way out and she needs a good slap
• i would prefer let die my child and let it go with God to heaven, that play with his future might become the son of the devil!! that molly is an asshole
• Weak townspeople!!
• no way someone would take my kid without killing me first
• Fucking cunt Mollie. Of course it was fixed you dumb bitch. Mike should have fought harder and took his son before that queer Lenoge asked if they made their decision yet

I have to say, I have trouble believing them.  Yeah, of course there are a (very) few people like Mike around.  The great majority of us are not like Mike (and I think that's the whole point of Storm of the Century: how easy and common it is to make the wrong choice, how much easier it is to see things clearly in hindsight, when the stress and insanity of the moment is gone!).  I get that we all want to think we're the one exception to the rule, just like all our children are above average here on Lake Wobegon, but I do not think the point is that this town is just wretched and evil for choosing Choice A.  The town is excruciatingly normal and human.  We fit that definition as well.  Like my favorite quote from "Courage" goes, "The human tragedy consists in the necessity of living with the consequences."  See also the chorus: "Courage, it didn't come, it doesn't matter/ Courage, couldn't come at a worse time."  Here, just have the damn song.

I'd even go so far as to say Not In My Back Yard tough guy antics actually make people more susceptible to the moral trickery that Andre Linoge sets in motion... it's so dogmatic, so self-assured for no good reason, that it's like putting on blinders.

Anyway, this is ironic timing given that I saw the movie The Rapture last night, which resolves similar themes in a decidedly different way.

Comments

[mr-earbrass.livejournal.com]

Heh, awesome post--I remember liking that one more than most of King's mini-serieses...which is odd, since it seems like the mini-series would be the ideal method of conveying King's ideas. Oh ah. As someone who often looks up metal videos on youtube, the amount of teh stupide in the comments is truly staggering.

And I really like your "life is not 300" tag!

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

I have a severe love/hate relationship with King, as you will see if you click on my "life is not 300" tag... but I do like quite a few of his miniserieses. Or rather, I have a soft open wound for Rose Red and The Night Flier. The latter, I blame entirely on the presence of Miguel Ferrer.

As they say, never read the comments!

[mr-earbrass.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Albert versus the Undead is about as good as it gets, and I actually liked it more than the story--and as for love/hate with King, when I said the mini-series was be the ideal method of conveying his ideas that included "writing them down" as a possible avenue of transmittal ;)

[wendigomountain.livejournal.com]

The Rapture? As in David Duchovney with a mullet, "the Rapture?" And Mimi Rogers hanging out in the desert, "the Rapture"!? Sweet!

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

Yep! I had never seen it before. I have no idea why SyFy showed it. Or why Hollywood made it, because damn if that's not right up there with Jesus Christ Superstar. Ironically they showed it right after the Hilary Swank movie The Reaping, which takes its Christianity very seriously.

[wendigomountain.livejournal.com]

I first saw it in my "Apocalyptic Movements" course in college. X-Files was huge at the time, as was Millennium, and come to think of it, Austin Powers...huh, weird. Anyway, much giggling and laughing about Duchovney meeting Mimi in a swinger club and then leaving behind a sordid life of sex addiction for married life. Oh, how naive we were back then.

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

My first reaction was definitely "noooo Diana Fowley, you stay away from Mulder!"

[wendigomountain.livejournal.com]

LOL!

[(Anonymous)]

Some delightful misogyny can be seen in them there youtube comments. You think they would have been happy if Molly had just picked Linoge up and flung him out to sea, the way a mother's meant to be able to lift a truck/whatever heavy object off their child in moments of great strength?
And I agree with you about self-righteous hollering enabling the bad guy, because it certainly paves the road to nasty things in real life.

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

Yep - I was also pretty amazed by the accusation that the other townspeople and Molly are bad parents who don't actually love their kids, given it was pretty clear that they were voting out of love, and thought Mike was the unloving parent.

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

I don't see why choice A is bad.

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

I'm no utilitarian, but it's a pretty common ethic amongst americans (at least some form--often a 'newer, better, not as stupid' form if you're a philosopher, or just 'an inconsistent and hodgepodge form' if you're a layperson, but not necessarily that significantly different--of consequentialism is), and that would seem to favor choice A. I mean, there are good arguments to be made for it, whether it's right or wrong 'in fact' (whatever that means, if that means at all).

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's true, and I think the characters do use utilitarian arguments to support both positions. Like I said below, I think the argument is that the worst possible thing to do is to give a child to evil. Of course I may be missing something about utilitarianism (like how much regard it gives to the afterlife).

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

well, classic utilitarianism does give weight to higher and lower pleasures/happiness and pain/unhappiness, like whether it affects your higher mental capacities/soul/whatever or not. Probably doesn't include the afterlife, at least not exactly, though. Ethics is mostly concerned with human actions and thus this life. I don't think they'd, you know, take this scenario seriously.

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

Maybe if you changed evil wizard to like, evil mortal who uses guns? But for the kid to be so easily and permanently turned into pure badness does pretty much rely on magic. I mean, it's a very absolute situation that's been given. King is not known for appreciating subtlety when it comes to villains.

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

Well, cuz it means you're "surrendering one child to evil." And it's better to potentially lose all the town's children to death (they'll still go to heaven?) than to give one to evil. I would probably choose Choice A myself realistically, but I remember asking Anika about this back in H.S. and she immediately said Choice B. Of course I was never convinced that the bad guy here is totally evil or just a bad wizard (or even Death). But it also relates to the whole "we don't negotiate with terrorists" mindset, I think.

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

Ah, I s'pose I had some confusion about that. I was like, so, you surrender him/her to the evil dude, and then he's dead, and then one person is dead instead of everybody. But surrender to evil could mean a lot of things...

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

Wait, no, you did say 'giving him to the evil wizard' or whatever. What is the wizard supposed to do with him, make him a minion? uh...

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the kid turns into the evil wizard's protege - his good guy dad sees him years later with the evil wizard and he's clearly been turned bad (he has fangs and he hisses at his father, that is. He doesn't push anybody into traffic or anything). So I guess it's the fact that he is now going to be an evildoer. Which, if you look at it from a really broad perspective... surrendering a kid is kind of making it worse for everybody, if the wizard goes around doing bad things.

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I didn't get that at all.

This is why people arrest sociopaths.

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I see I didn't say that. The townspeople convince themselves that the child would have the chance to "live a long life and see the world," really trying not to think about the ramifications of the kid being evil. Does that change your view about Choice A?

Sociopaths like the evil wizard?

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

Dunno. Complicates it a bit, I guess. At least makes me understand the post/responses more.

I actually meant the kid, but the wizard too i s'pose.

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

(I'm writing short responses just cuz I'm exhausted...thoughts all jumpy)