Land of Confusion

Sometimes I wonder how our society got to the point we are at today.  To follow me on this you might have to put your political or religious beliefs aside just for the sake of argument.  

All successful societies have laws against killing its members.  In most societies killing someone intentionally has some of the harshest punishments the society in question allows.  In ours we would rather a doctor kill someone than give them a plant that was outlawed primarily due to racial and ethnic bigotry.  From a logical standpoint you cannot argue for allowing a doctor to prescribe a substance that is designed to cause death and argue against allowing a doctor to prescribe a substance that may or may not help or harm the patient but is unlikely to cause death.  I’m not arguing for or against assisted suicide.  I’m not arguing for or against medical marijuana.  I just can’t see the logic in federal drug laws superceding state laws in the case of medical marijuana, but not in the case of assisted suicide. Suicide is deadly.  If a doctor decided to try to assist the suicide by prescribing marijuana, would that be ok because the objective is death?   Granted, that’s not a likely scenario since medical science doesn’t consider marijuana a deadly drug.  But what if the joint was laced with a deadly poison?  Is that ok?  When prescribing drugs for assisted suicide, is it only acceptable to use drugs the government does not consider dangerous?  How non-dangerous can a drug be if it is being prescribed to kill someone?  Essentially the Supreme Court has placed the value of civil obedience above the lives of the citizens.  This in a country that was founded by civil disobedience, and whose constitution begins with “We the people”.

The other recent news item that makes me believe that our society has stopped placing value on human life is the lawsuit the City of Los Angeles has filed against the makers of the video game "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas".  If you haven’t played the game or any of its predecessors, the goal of the game is to steal cars, motorcycles and helicopters and to kill people for money, weapons, cars, motorcycles, helicopters, or just for fun.  If you shoot them in head just right the head explodes and blood squirts vertically out the neck like a fountain.  Oddly enough the City of Los Angeles is ok with that part.  They have a problem with the nudity.  Let me get this strait. It’s ok to kill someone. It’s not okay to have sex. In that case I demand that all politicians who are not virgins resign immediately. If they are a virgin and a murderer, that’s ok.  Again, I’m not arguing for or against sex or violence in video games.  I just want to see people actually think about things.  I’ve played the game and I like it.  That is why I’m amazed that people are upset about the sex part.  Since when is sex worse than murder?

We desperately need to rethink our priorities