Jack Thompson in Drag
Saturday, August 12th, 2006 at 2:43 amThanks to the wonder of YouTube, we get to relive an old Nickelodeon show from the early 1980s called Livewire. In this episode, they have a guest on the show named Ronnie Lamm, someone who spouts the most ignorant half-truths I’ve heard in awhile about video games. Infact, she reminds me of Jack Thompson.
(Update: I used to embed the video right here, but I’ve removed the embedded player because YouTube produces invalid xhtml. Just click here to watch it instead.)
For one, her statements about cataracts formed by CRTs is completely bunk, and was struck down by the science community in the mid-80s or so. It really dates the show, but it is minor compared to the other things she said…
How many people ever got credit from an arcade? None. Absolutely none. Where she ever got such a whacky idea I don’t know, but not only would such a contract be invalid (as you cannot make a legally enforcable contract with a minor), it sounds a lot like the debit-card-ish thing many large arcades had where parents paid up front (which did not exist yet, and wouldn’t have been implemented for another few years).
Also, notice how she totally sidesteps the kid in the audience’s question near the end? The kid asks, “I spend $1.50 a day on arcades where I’d be instead spending it on food.” She totally goes off the deep end and talks about those credit contracts in arcades. Now that America has what is basically a fat people epidemic, shes worried about some kid spending $1.50 on an arcade machine?
Also, she compares these arcades to “shylocks and credit people.” Yeah, lady, I’m sure Visa and Mastercard really love you now. Wow, next it’ll be wrong and/or illegal to make a decent living.
I’d love to know what the hell people like this are on. You can’t just be afraid of every little thing that shows up. And the guy opposite of her from the game industry is right: If your kid has a game addiction (if such a thing even exists, in 2006 we still don’t think it exists), then you deal with it; you don’t start trying to tear the arcade down because your kid has issues. Maybe if parents would take responsibility for their children and properly raise them we wouldn’t have half the shit going on we have now.
Teach your children to responsible with their money, time, and lives, and America’s overflowing prisons and dying economy will be a thing of the past, and so will the Jack Thompsons and the Ronnie Lamms of the world, the true shylocks.
Responsibility when it comes to children is the only instance in where a “trickle down” effect actually works, and is downright necessary.
Granted, there will always be those children who are shining stars, and transcend any number of terrible influences and shitty situations they find themselves put into to become clever and responsible adults.
Those kids aren’t the majority, though. As such, responsibility in terms of blame starts with the parents, and the child – if it’s even necessary – needs to be blamed at the absolute last. Since it starts with the parents, that means that people like this Lamm woman are ignorant of a simple truth, or dodging their own need to be responsible.
It’s sickening, really, the cycle of blame and irresponsibility and squeaky-wheel politics that just make it harder for the children, who then grow up thinking that they should be blamers and irresponsible and squeaky wheels.
I’m always glad to hear someone taking a hard stance on the concept of responsibility.
Kudos on the article.
Excellent article. You also make a good point, that it isn’t the arcade’s fault, it is the parents that are refusing to take responsibility. It isn’t the arcade’s fault if a kid gets addicted to video games, or the school’s fault if a kid gets overweight – it’s the parents who can’t take responsibility, let alone teach it to their kids.