I’m sure there were people making predictions along these lines. I know I have been. Ban anything that makes you uncomfortable. Go ahead. Just don’t blame me when you wonder how your society became a bunch of naked savages bashing each other in the head with rocks.
In the wake of Monday’s massacre at Virginia Tech in which a student killed 32 people, Yale’s Dean of Student Affairs Betty Trachtenberg has limited the use of stage weapons in theatrical productions.
If you were to ask Betty Trachtenburg what she hopes to achieve who knows what her answer would be. Something about stopping violence I suppose. Her answer isn’t important. The fact that she is a woman in a position to influence young people is. Pseudo logic is not an acceptable mechanism for decision making.
What is the thought process at work here? There is no rational way to draw the inference that banning stage weapons will somehow lead to a reduction in violence off the stage. Maybe she just like the clacking noise that wooden swords make when they come together with force.
I do know that banning depictions of violence has about as much chance of making violence disappear as our War on Drugs has had of making people stop abusing their own bodies by getting high. And that may just be the problem with Ms. Trachtenburg. Perhaps she is high on something.
Update: The stage weapons ban has already been rescinded.
Luckily, officials at Yale were able to replace the ban with an alternative form of illogical stupidity – a mandatory announcement that stage weapons will be used during a play. Is Dean Trachtenburg apologetic over her inability to use reason in her decision making? Hardly:
"I think people should start thinking about other people rather than trying to feel sorry for themselves and thinking that the administration is trying to thwart their creativity," Trachtenberg said. "They’re not using their own intelligence. … We have to think of the people who might be affected by seeing real-life weapons."
As long as we allow the mentally retarded to be school administrators, our educational facilities will breed more mentally retarded people. Some people are calling for more rules related to who should be allowed to possess a firearm. Why not re-examine who we allow to educate our young people at the same time?
Hat tip: Bruce Schneier.