Cult Creature or Enemy Threat?

The recent Boston "terrorist threat/television promotion" acts as a workable Rorschach test for where this country's mindset is right now. Whether you see a Mooninite, a small, Atari influenced digital creature whose biggest sin is being undeservedly arrogant or a strange, threatening device says a lot about which camp you fall into in this latest, oddest skirmish in the so-called "culture wars". As with any war, both sides have their propoganda, their entrenched mindsets and their prejudices. And as usual, the 'truth' in the war probably doesn't lie on either side, but somewhere in the gooey, gray, uncomfortable middle.

On one side we have the argument that this entire situation has been blown ridiculously out of proportion. It seems certain that no one involved in the ad campaign had any intention of hurting anyone and all but certain that no one wanted to create any sort of hoax/panic. I mean, after all, it was too neo hippies hanging boards with lights powered by batteries. They even videotaped themselves doing it! Not many truly malevolent people are foolish enough to record their actions for posterity. And ultimately, are these guys responsible for the gross overreaction of an entire, apparently unhip, city? Even granting the city officials their right to be wrong, in the light of day it's patently obvious that everyone could just write it off as a misunderstanding of Brogdignagian proportions and move on.

All that's true, but as with so many culture war arguments, it's not exclusively true. That is, it's veracity doesn't negate the other sides equally convincing arguments.

To wit.

In an era of world wide terrorism, where the unthinkable can and has happened, is it really paranoid to consider that small blinking devices hung from public places in a large urban setting just MIGHT qualify as something to look into? Isn't it a bit arrogant and elitist (not to mention naive) to assume that the public mainstream would be as aware of the identity of a pop culture character as say, a college crowd? Given the current world situation, where we are, like it or not, at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, where terrorists lurk within our borders and plot God knows what against us, why is it so hard to understand people were fearful of this stealth campaign? Would it have been that difficult for instance, to just "ask" someone from Boston if this was OK before going ahead and actually doing it? How much would that have cost the Cartoon Network versus how much is it GOING to cost them because they were too lazy to bother?

It's frustrating how illustrative this is of where we are as a country. Frustrating, and scary. Everything has to be so didactic, so black and white that no one ends up giving any ground or even attempts to see the other point of view and just possibly grow as a result. Everyone in favor of invading Iraq is a "warmonger" and everyone against it is a "traitor". I've heard people say those guys that did the Boston ads should be strung up, and I've heard that the city is full of uncool morons who are no clueless they are willing to shut themselves down completely on the remote chance that something bad might happen. Both of these extreme views don't really advance the arguments for either side, they just serve to point out how deeply divided we are as a country at this period in history.

It's not bad to be divided. In fact, the truism that is really true is that our strength comes from our diversity. We don't all follow the same drummer. We argue over everything and approach situations from widely different points of view. All of that is healthy and good. The point at which is becomes unhealthy is when that diversity is not respected as it should be. That is, it's fine to think your neighbor is a moron, as long as you keep in mind how great it is that he is free to be a moron just as he is free to think of YOU as a moron. We're all going to make mistakes and misinterpret things; that's a given. I think the key is to try and learn something from each of these experiences where there's a huge gap in perspective, to try and concentrate more on how to mediate those different perspectives and less on who was "right" or "wrong".

We all love black and white situations because they are so easy to react to. Unfortunately, most situations aren't black and white; most are "offwhite and dark grey" or some permutation thereof. No one has a monopoly on the truth. I hope as we move forward in this "twilight struggle" against terrorism, that we all remember that. If we don't, the entire notion of a "culture war" may be rendered moot because we will have eliminated the culture that's being fought over.