I have never been a boy scout, so I can’t claim to have a total understanding of what the program is really all about… but I do know that you can get badges. And come on… who doesn’t like to get badges. My Sunday School once gave me a badge for HUMILITY… but later they took it away from me for wearing it. HAHA… get it? Oh never mind.
So now the Boy Scouts have a new program in the Los Angeles area that scouts can earn a badge for… learning about the evils of piracy… from the folks at the MPAA. Yeah, I thought it was a joke at first too. The good folks at Yahoo give us this:
Scouts will be instructed in the basics of copyright law and learn how to identify five types of copyrighted works and three ways copyrighted materials may be stolen. Scouts also must choose one activity from a list that includes visiting a movie studio to see how many people can be harmed by film piracy. They also can create public service announcements urging others not to steal movies or music.
I can’t put my finger on why… but this just seems evil to me. Yes, piracy is wrong… I’m not disputing that… but something about multi-billion dollar industry corporations going into the Boy Scouts to teach them how to keep the really rich people… really rich. Yeah… the idea just makes me want to puke and kind of epitomizes where our culture has gone. Yuck.
