Generally speaking, general confict takes a limited number of forms, and one of them is the “moral panic”, where older people see youngsters acting in what they perceive to be irrational ways, and then irrationally blaming it on some new fad. Given that much of the civil unrest we’re seeing today is of a generational nature, and blame seems to be the most important of any conversation, it seems to me that we’re just a skip and a jump away from our next moral panic.
So, I thought it might be a good idea to revisit some of the recent moral manics that most of us might be familiar with, to glean some insights into how these work and what we might expect.
Rock and Roll - The Devil’s Music
This is the earliest one that I have any living memory of, and it went hand-in-hand with the peace protests. These hippies are rejecting authority because… of this crap noise they call “music” that they listen to. Now, this particular moral panic has been around for a hundred years and has never actually gone away, but I think it hit its peak in my lifetime when Tipper Gore when on her crusade to label musical albums in a “age-appropriate” fashion.
The crux of their argument was that parents were utterly incapable of controlling what their children listened to (you’ll see this argument a lot), and the responsibility for that should really devolve to commercial retailers.
As with any censorship debate, “who decides what’s appropriate” is the first question asked and the last question answered. As far as criteria went, not only were lyrics scrutinized, but people even went to far as to play records backwards looking for Satanic messages… leading people to record records backwards with Satanic messages, just to be contrary.
Video Games - The Devil Invades Your Eyeballs
The main argument that’s gone against video games, is that they promote violence. This is sort of an outgrowth of the thinking behind the earlier comic book panic: that children innately imitate what they see.
Despite study after study debunking this notion in every media in which it has emerged, it remains a popular concept This reached a peak in the wake of the Columbine Massacre, in which it failed to escape no one’s attention that the teens involved played video games of a violent nature.
This -particular cause was championed by notable-at-the-time attorney Jack Thompson, who sued… everyone. He met his match in the public arena trying to match wits with the fellows behind noted gaming webcomic “Penny Arcade”.
As video games have gone more mainstream, this particular panic has fallen by the wayside.
Dungeons & Dragons - Satan’s Game
This one I have the most personal knowledge of, because I was an avid gamer when this went down. This took place in the larger context of the “Satanic Panic”, back in the late 80s when Satan lurked under every rock and bush. Dungeons & Dragons, a game of let’s pretend with a few rules, captured the imaginations of paranoid religious people, who professed to view it as trying to promote actual witchcraft, and mental healt professionals insisted it led to psychosis.
This eventually led to a best-selling novel, which was adapted into the movie “Mazes & Monsters”, starring a Tom Hanks who refuses to discuss that movie any more. There were book-burnings, and a notorious comic tract by Jack Chick amongst other protestations.
Again, this had nothing to do with objective reality. And as more and more people have revealed themselved to be gamers, the stigma has diminshed.
So What Need Is Served In These Panics?
My hypothesis is that the majority of people, at some point in their lives, become resistant to change. The old joke is that “music stopped evolving the first time you got laid”. And to an extent, I think that’s generally what’s going on. Anything past that point is strange and weird, and therefore evil.
What Does This Bode For The Future?
The establishment is under attack. The main thrust I see is that it’s all this SOCIAL MEDIA that’s causing the real trouple, it inhibits your ability to differentiate fantasy from reality. A familiar argument. You’re gonna talk about regulating its content, and we’ve already been asked the questions along those lines: who gets to decide what to keep, and what to toss?
Thoughts and comments, as you please!
