This is my proposal for a new little virtual reality show, to be enacted on the streets of America. You become a contestant, automatically, by participating in a die-in*, a puke-in, a mass flash or any other substantially disruptive demonstration of moral, intellectual and patriotic bankruptcy. Simple.
Here's the deal. In "Iraq for a day," you have no "rights." You may be whisked off by the "police" at the slightest provocation, locked in a filthy room without air, food or water, tortured in various hideous and unimaginable ways and then dumped ceremoniously back into the street. Your family may be rounded up and subjected to similar treatment for your entertainment. You might even wind up dead if you say or think or believe the "wrong" thing. Or if you refuse to fight and die for your country. That's right. It's not only that you'd better not even think about protesting the war. You're going to go and join it -- or catch a quick bullet in the head. Your choice.
Yes, I know all about that constitutional crap and the rule of law, but this is a game, silly. It's just good, clean fun. And my guess is, most of the contestants would learn how to avoid being voted off this plane of existence real quick by obeying the rules. They might also get a clue just exactly what it is that they're stopping traffic in New York to defend, first-hand, up close and personal. I'm beginning to think that nothing less is going to get through to them.
(* link via Diane)
