Nobody Is Innocent!
We’re all guilty of teasing other people. Some of us are less guilty as adults than others, but we have all, at some point or other, teased other people as children. It’s in our nature. Human beings are programmed to protect their ego at all costs, and one of the easiest ways to do so is to divert negative attention towards other people when they remind us of our own shortcomings.
That’s the main reason that bullies exist. When we feel insecure about an aspect of ourselves, we have a natural desire to act upon it. And when a bully sees a part of themself in a weaker person, they instinctively want to attack that quality as well as the person attached to it. Everyone who was a part of the Star Wars Kid phenomenon, whether it be the people who uploaded the video, the people who laughed and forwarded it to others, or the people who edited the video and took the phenomenon several steps forward are all guilty of teasing, and it’s because of one reason. They saw themselves in that video.
How To Create A Viral Video…
By most estimates, The Star Wars Kid is the most popular internet viral video of all time being viewed over one billion times.
So a little over half a year after the original video was uploaded, Raza decided that he was going going to sue the people who uploaded the video.
Misplaced Anger?
I’m not an attorney so I can’t comment conclusively on this, but here’s the way I see it. The students who found the tape didn’t find it in Raza’s house. It was found in the basement at the school, which was probably taxpayer funded. The camera probably belonged to the school. The studio surely didn’t belong to him. The TAPE didn’t even belong to him. Raza decided to act silly in front of the camera using the school’s equipment. This wasn’t an assignment, this was something he decided to do upon his own free will and then leave the evidence laying around. How does any of that correlate to a right to privacy?
Not to mention that countless people on the internet would love to have received the attention that he received, and Raza could have EASILY parlayed the attention he was receiving into future endeavors that could have made him lots of money.
On The Other Hand…
I highly doubt that Raza would have ever had the foresight to see these possibilities, as apparently the phenomenon that spread caused him such grief that he reportedly felt the need to drop out of high school and ended up in a psychiatric ward. Look, I’m not saying that I envy what happened to him, and I’m certainly not saying that I would have handled it smoothly if I was in his shoes, but if that’s all it takes for him to fall apart, then he probably wasn’t going to fare very well in the real world anyway. In life, things happen. You deal with it. Raza is at least partially responsible for all of this, because he should have known that someone was going to see the video if he’s going to leave it at school.
Obviously he didn’t know that it was going to end up on the internet, and he didn’t know that it was going to command the attention that it did, but what is the real issue here? Not everyone who viewed the video was teasing him. On the contrary, many people enjoyed the enthusiasm and purity that he possessed. Did he suffer because his classmates tease him about it? Boo hoo. Many kids get teased. It’s part of growing up. And sometimes, yes, you do get teased by a good portion of your school. It’s no different than thousands of other cases that occur every year. Or what about the fact that this would hurt his chances of employment? Please… Most employers aren’t going to care about something like that. As a matter of fact, I’m sure there were thousands of employers who laughed and enjoyed the video and would have hired him on the spot!
Trey, one thing that human beings are often unaware of is their tendency to judge, not only themselves, but also other people. As one learns to detach from this kind of behaviour, one realizes one can only ever truly comment on oneself. Even then, perspective can shift from participant to more astute observer.
Liara Covert’s most recent blog post..Hear of Smudgeface?
Hi Liara,
I agree that judgment is at the center of this issue. Even I’m guilty of judgment by calling him a crybaby. I admit that. I don’t feel that strongly about it, but I felt that I needed a strong statement for the title of this article.
I agree that we must redirect our judgment of others to ourselves, as we have the power to change ourselves as opposed to try to break down others to make ourselves feel better. I have respect for the people who forwarded videos of The Star Wars Kid as a way to feel good about themselves and about humanity, as opposed to teasing him. Thanks for commenting, you always bring wisdom to the table.
“Did he suffer because his classmates tease him about it? Boo hoo. Many kids get teased. It’s part of growing up. And sometimes, yes, you do get teased by a good portion of your school. It’s no different than thousands of other cases that occur every year.”
Trey, I am concerned about what I have seen in the way schools react to teasing, “bullying”, etc. We have become a nation of crybabies and I think it is partly because we are raising our children to think they get a free ride. It’s almost like people think they have a right to be free of judgment.
The real world is cruel. Quite frankly I think it is good that children learn that in the relatively protected world of their childhood and the school setting. Better then before they get out into the real world alone and can’t handle it. I’m not promoting cruelty at school or anywhere else, but I think we have gone way too far in our overprotective tendencies. Many of the young people I’m around now (I’m an old 48) are babies. They can’t handle the real world because they were overprotected growing up.
I don’t know anything about the Star Wars Kid, but sounds like a sad case. Thanks for the article. It has a lot of good points.
Stephen – Rat Race Trap’s most recent blog post..Living Free
@ Stephen
I agree very strongly. I have a solid opinion about the way the current generation is being raised, but since I like to keep this blog entertainment related, that’s a subject I don’t get too deep into. But yes, it seems parents and teachers want to give kids a stress free childhood, and that’s not how the world works. I used to say that I foresee a lot of problems nationwide and maybe worldwide when some of these kids enter the workforce around 2014 or so.
We don’t need to make school un-necessarily difficult for kids, but we need to just let kids be kids, because letting them sort through their social differences helps them to establish their role as adults.
The Star Wars Kid wasn’t an everyday occurrence. But the results of him getting teased by his schoolmates is nothing unusual. It happens all of the time. The movie “Carrie” was pretty realistic, minus the supernatural part. And some kids just get dealt bad cards and have to deal with more teasing than others. Just like in the adult world… not everyone is on an even playing field. To teach our children otherwise is dangerous to our collective future.
Thanks for commenting!