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Devil Shat 1998 10 08
.ili. Devil Shat Thirty Seven .ili.
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Shock and the Meaning of Implication ............... by Morbus
This is Devil Shat Thirty Seven released on 10/08/98. Devil Shat is
published by Disobey and is protected under all copyright laws. All of
the issues are archived at the Disobey website: http://www.disobey.com/
Submissions, email, and news should be sent to morbus@disobey.com. Your
comments are welcome. What do you want us to write about? Send an email
and let us know.
My mouth is rather dry.
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.ili. Shock and the Meaning of Implication .ili.
------------------------------------------------ by Morbus
A long time ago, I wrote an article entitled "Shocking News" detailing
my feelings as I learned of the Apple and Microsoft collaboration. The
news did shock me... the idea of the beloved Macintosh cooking with the
deadly Windows just didn't taste like a good pie. It hit close to home.
Now, I could care less about the whole damn thing: Apple is back on
track, Microsoft is bigger news than Clinton, and I'm happily working
away on both Macs and PCs.
It's the seemingly innocent that affect us so much. When we feel like we
have seen it all and crossed every boundary, something sneaks up behind
us, tap-tap-a-tapping on a nerve we had hoped no one would ever find,
much less one we would formally recognize.
Shocking at face value is rather hard nowadays, especially those of "the
Internet Culture"... those who have seen it all by accidentally visiting
the wrong sites, and staring in morbid and disgusted fascination at the
partially loaded images before clicking on the "back" button, or
retreating to the safe surroundings of "home". People on the Internet
have seen so much more than your average news watching, paper reading,
book borrowing, school hopping, "I love you, mama" person on the street.
A sad fact, but computer geeks and your children will probably be more
sturdy to witness the fourth dimension and its "untold horrors" than the
Waltons.
Take, for instance, the following statements and situations. Most, if
not all, are not shocking to the Internet Culture:
1.) "Homosexuals worship Satan because the Bible said porking another
man up the ass is wrong."
The very moralistic idea of this should send shivers through the hearts
of Christians. Those who believe that homosexuality is wrong adore this
statement... it solidifies their point, and gives a religious reasoning
why. Christians who support homosexuality find themselves at a
crossroads: support it (and chance going to Hell) or turn on their
fellow man.
Why isn't it shocking? How many people really care about the whole
homosexuality issue anyways? It's been talked about to death, and as
much as the hatred and the beatings and the phobias go on, they have
"won". They, like women voting, have achieved what should have been
their's all along. Perhaps during the first months of the Gay Rights
movement, a homosexual might stammer a bit if this comment was thrown at
them, but nowadays, prepped answers for religious and moral stupidity
are on the tongue of most.
No one cares much because we have grown used to homosexuals and their
lifestyles, whether we like them or not. How many times have you
whispered to a friend or coworker "hey, do you think he's gay?".
Homosexuality is merely gossip and paranoia.
2.) "Child pornography is only bad when it's your own siblings. And
that depends."
This comment just oozes of "trying to offend". It's got your
controversial hook ("Child pornography"), your ultimatum ("is ONLY
bad"), and relates to you ("your own siblings.") And then, without
stopping, the speaker throws in your clever offender ("and that
depends."). Whether the person cared about your opinion, you've now
thrown in that variable which labels you as "trying to tell a bad joke".
You expect comments like this from your typical party rouser... said
with a smile, but meant to deliberately offend. That's the problem: it's
in your face, you're waiting for it, and you've already prepared
yourself. Stuff like this can be shrugged off with a disgusted smile and
an "ewwwww".
3.) "God is dead, and no one cares."
Besides being the lyrics to a Nine Inch Nails song, this is pure
boredom. People have learned to shrug crap like this off... it's a bait.
If they start arguing about it, they'll find that its speaker
absolutely has nothing to back it up besides "he just IS!".
Another Nine Inch Nails song, "Closer", brought about instant cult
status with the magical line "I want to fuck you like an animal". All
par for the course.
4.) "Go suck your mother's pussy."
Simple insults equates to a walking away or to a much more vibrant use
of swear words, phallic parts, and sexual references... usually
involving your mother and sister together engaged in oral sex while
rolling around in Crisco and shoving the empty bottles up their anuses.
See what I mean?
5.) "And here we look down upon the body of your neighbor, brutally
murdered by your own son. How are you feeling?"
Can we say "Natural Born Killers"? The use of the modern television as a
shock medium is "sooo five minutes ago". Likewise, the glorification of
media as violent, exploitative, and all around evil is accepted by most.
And it only took Saturday Night Live about 25 years before people said
"Hey, let's make the news funny!" and started ripping 'em off.
Besides yellow journalism like "Hard Copy", and the wonderfully fake (or
so accused) Jerry Springer and others, we know the media is dirty, we
know the media is exploitative, and we know the media can kill. We've even
tried to do something about it, but free speech happily runs rampant on
all of our other rights.
As long as the media is viewed and treated as entertainment, shock will
always be followed by a changing of the channel, the dipping of a chip,
or a happy faced chuckle.
6.) "A Fighting Chance: The Moral Use of Nuclear Weapons" by Joseph
P. Martino
I bought this book on Sunday for 99 cents at a Goodwill store. Written
in 1988, its byline is "... Because if war breaks out, the last thing
we want is to be programmed for holocaust."
As much as this should offend, (the moral use of nuclear weapons? what
the hell?), it does and doesn't. It's one of those aforementioned "what
the hell" questions. The thought of being obliterated by a nuclear bomb
is a little hard to swallow. The morality of being destroyed is even
harder. Yet, the whole nuclear scare ended with Cherynobl years ago and
has faded into the background. Yes, nuclear holocaust is still around
the corner, but so is being murdered by your next door neighbor. If it
happens, "OH SHIT!". But otherwise, "Oh well".
7.) "For just 37 cents a day, the cost of a cup of coffee, you can feed
children like this one..."
First off, who the hell are they buying coffee from?
Secondly, there a number of reasons that things don't shock us anymore:
indifference, ignorance, intelligence, acceptance, and so on. The more
people attempt to shock us in some way, the more it works against them:
we become desensitized to what we are watching, and we must go further
to get that "buzz" we are looking for.
Likewise, it can't be shocking just for the sake of shocking. A perfect
example are the starving children commercials. First, there were only
pictures of the starving, then there were stationary poses, and now
camera men walk through the areas of death... decay, hunger, and filth
all around. The point is still there, but the commercials grew with the
audience.
It works like this: when the sponsors started dying down from the old
commercials with pictures, they gave the viewers real life. When people
started getting bored with what they were seeing, the advertisers jumped
to immersion... they tried to relate the well-fed, warm, content viewers
to a problem they will never face.
That is the inherent error: shock can only disturb when it attacks what
we are made of, not the superficial shell we show and impress others
with. And in a day and age where violence, death, and sex are at every
turn, and the corporate world treasures productivity over individuality,
attempts to shock work only for what we portray and not what we feel.
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