Southpark and Justice

I am in Korea for the start of the year 2010. So far this has been a great experience. I teach debate to 5th and 6th graders wanting to learn English. It has been quite pleasant so far. I teach only about 22 hours a week and will be getting paid quite well.

This has been a good break. Not nearly as productive as I would like it to be, but then I am not sure it would be a break if it were overly productive. One pastime I have been enjoying has been watching the TV show South Park. A mildly offensive show that is an equal opportunity chastiser. Anything that has been done poorly, or stupidly gets mocked in this show, and I do mean anything. With much free time in the mountains of Korea I have been able to watch the first season of this show.

While watching South Park I have noticed something that I am sure many before me have noticed already. The character of Kenny is a social critique against us all. Nearly every episode Kenny, the boy who is poor because his dad is an alcoholic (and a redneck mind you), will die by some freak sort of accident. After his death Stan and Kyle (the two main characters) will shout out "Oh, my God! They killed Kenny! You bastards!" This occurrence becomes increasingly funny as it repeatedly happens time and time again in more and more outrageous ways. Beneath the sarcasm there is a sad message to us all.

Stan, Kyle, Cartman and the rest of the South Park community always end up mocking Kenny for being poor. This mockery in some way points out that oppression of the poor is not so much racial as economic. We tend to go after the economically weak in our prejudice. Not only is Kenny mocked but he is killed. However, after the tag line from Stan and Kyle "You bastards!" Nothing is done to help out Kenny's family. In fact, no one seems to notice that Kenny is gone. Life goes on without a hitch. There are no problems when the poor child dies. No one mourns, no one cares, it has effected no one. How true that is of us! How often do we see death and destruction on the poor and weak and then turn a blind eye? Or maybe we see children starving overseas and do nothing to help.

Everyday a Kenny dies. Everyday there is a mother weeping for the loss of a child. Everyday the cry is heard "You bastards!" but nothing is done about it. We go on living like nothing has happened. We forget the names and faces, or at least we cover up the horrors of life with creaturely comforts. Governments can help but are not really the answer. What really will change these problems is people working from the bottom up. People who are united by love to change the problems that plague humanity. Love is the answer.