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.

98-Oct-11
raper_x@hotmail.com

Exactly. I think Operation Ivy summed it up with "Our vulnerability is all our insesitivity". In a world like this you have to show some signs of not being affected. Because once you are disturbed, then they can control you and program you to be like everyone else in the world. Another great work is "Eye Scream" by Henry Rollins. Rollins instills a sense of "how the fuck did society get that bad?" with a melow undertone of "it's everyone's fault who does not try to make the situation better". How can the little preppy 17 year old say he has experienced life when the most shocking thing he has seen was last weeks episode of "Melrose Place" as compared to a boy of 9 who has witnessed his best friend's murder. You can get raped and killed here. Go sleep on the streets of East Oakland. You don't sleep, you walk around all night. Cautious and wary.

Then again, if you are apathetic to the case, that's just as bad. The world is a giant fucked up ball of hate. If I were God, this place would have been burned down long ago. Can you imagine the fear of a 16 year old boy who runs away from home because he is afraid if his father hits him any harder, he will die before next winter? Is it possible to read the mind of someone who has murdered another human being? What the fuck is wrong with everything? Can people not see that they need to do something fast. Here's one for starters: let's take all those limey piece of shit gang bangers, round 'em up, douse 'em in gasoline, and set fire to the fucks. The bad will be gone, and the poor can have a nice warm fire that will last for a few days. Or better yet: people who have been on welfare most of their natural lives can be shipped out to food proccessing plants, diced, spliced, chopped and mixed, then presto - world hunger is solved. No, this world is fucked. I sit here behind my screen of vision and witness all that has happened. I have walked and slept in the streets with the homeless. They are kind people. Many are far more educated than I. I have seen people get killed, beaten, raped and i have done nothing. I have tried for years to make everyone aware of our present state, but no one seems to give a damn. They all think it's someone elses job. I have been raised by the molesting hands of strangers (metaphorically speaking) and i know what pain is. I only give help to those that seek it. The rest of the time i sit back and watch the world as it diminishes. There is no such thing as shock. Children see thousands of murders on TV alone. Everyone is ready for what happens. It really is ridiculous to sit here and know all this stuff is happening that we have no control over. People gave hope up long ago. God? There is no God. If there was, it would have never gotten to this point. It is no longer safe for children to play in the streets. Malls and Condo's rule over the populace now. The sacred diety of yester year is replaced day by day. Everyone should just sit back, grab a copy of the Operation Ivy cd, read the lyrics, listen to the words, and laugh at all those who are self-destructing.

I'm SHOCKED and OUTRAGED at issue 37!

Does this mean I'm behind the times?

LOL

3.) "God is dead, and no one cares."

Well, consider the following:

I use a variation of that line, "God might be dead but you didn't inherit his job."

next issue >>
<< last issue

plain text format


Devil Shat is published by Disobey & is protected under all copyright laws.
Devil Shat Thirty Seven was released on 10/08/98. Last updated: 10/08/98.