In Bad Taste

As one reader quite accurately commented on one of my blogs, there is no shortage of idiots in this world. And while that is true, I think a corrollary to that statement is that there is no shortage of mean spirited people either. Case in point? Well how about 21-year-old Ryan Lambourn of Sydney, Australia who has burst into the news recently due to a game he developed and put on his website. There's nothing special about that other than the fact that the game is a cartoony depiction of the shootings by Cho Seong-Hui at Virginia Tech last month. Apparently Lambourn claims to have developed the game "because it's funny" and to "make people angry". Well, he has certainly succeeded in raising the ire of a lot of people. With the murders still fresh in everyone's mind, this attempt to make light of a very tragic situation flies in the face of what is in good taste. Apparently this is a good example of what is in terrible taste.

Lambourn claims to have sympathy for the families who have lost loved ones at Virginia Tech but he also claims to have sympathy for Cho. According to Lambourn, he realizes that some people are left with no other means of expressing anger and frustration other than lashing out and it is for this very reason that Cho did what he did and because he understands that, Lambourn doesn't have any problem with having developed the game. At the instigation of a friend who thought it was a "hillarious" idea, Lambourn developed the game and posted it on his website. Knowing that it was sure to create quite a stir, Lambourn put the game up with a ransom demand for taking it down. According to statements he's made, he will take the game down after he receives $2,000 in donations and he will take it down and offer an apology if he receives $3,000 or more in donations. I certainly hope that Lambourn isn't a business major because if he is, any company that hires him is going to be at a loss if his bookkeeping skills make that much sense.

The idea that by creating something that is bound to anger a lot of people and then expect them to pay you for it is ridiculous but I guess it doesn't matter to Lambourn since he's so far removed from the incident. And that's the truth around the world actually. Every day around the world, there are incidents and accidents that occur with the tragic loss of life. In Iraq on an almost daily basis, men and women are dying and yet life moves on around the rest of the world. While this may be the unfortunate norm in a war torn country like Iraq, it isn't all that common here in the States and since this occurred in such a prominent place, it's not surprising that it received as much attention as it did.

However, the fundamental difference between what's happening in the world and what happened here in Virginia Tech is that people here in the States identify more closely with the students who were killed rather than people from anywhere else. But even when we know that people are dying around the world, we don't use it as a source of humor. Still, it's not to say that it hasn't been used for financial gain in the past either. At the time the Battle of Mogadishu occurred back in 1993 it was viewed as a tragic event and was chronicled in the book "Black Hawk Down". Later it became a movie and is the basis for a series of games for various gaming platforms. The difference here is that we view this entertainment as a means of honoring the sacrifice of our soldiers who gave their lives for others. We don't see the killing of the opponents as anything other than killing the enemy because they are on the opposite side.

Lambourn argues along similar lines saying that Cho was not necessarily bad but was so repressed by society that his violence was his only means of drawing attention to himself. It's very extreme and no one can argue that Lambourn's theory makes any sense. To kill others to gain attention is not like killing in the line of duty in order to defeat warlords or enemy combatants. The victims in Virginia Tech were not doing anything more than living their lives when they were tragically cut down and killed. To make light of it and use it as a source of attempted income is low and insensitive. Perhaps Lambourn doesn't care because the tragedy didn't directly affect him. Hopefully he doesn't have to experience that kind of loss before he realizes the insensitive nature of his actions. But if he does, I'm sure he won't be laughing then.