No Solicitors We Are Agnostic
In
one of South
Parks more recent episodes
, “The Poor Kid” we see a full frontal assult on several facets
of our society, foster care, and agnostics being among them. “The
Poor Kid” highlights several problems in the foster care system,
and in any fundamentalist religion.
According
to http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/agnostic.htm,
“An
agnostic is one who admits, 'I don't know.' The term is applied
specifically to those who don't know for certain whether or not God
exists.”
South
Park sets
up the Agnostic code as being, “We cannot know with certainty if
God or Christ exists. They COULD. Then again there COULD be a giant
reptilian bird in charge of everything. Can we be CERTAIN there
isn’t? NO, so it’s pointless to talk about.” (– The Agnostic
Code) This is later seen when a giant bird kills Kenny at the end of
the episode by decimating the school's ceiling and picking Kenny out
of a crowd.
Eric Cartman through another short sighted scheme for
self-advancement manages to get himself sent to a foster home. A
foster home that we see Kenny's family, who serve as the stereotype
model for “white trash” like usual. Eric and Kenny arrived at a
foster home who were fundamentalist agnostics. This can be veiwed as
a sort of poke at fundamentalists in general, but in popular Western
culture, Christianity in particular. In Western American society we
find numerous examples of intolerant radical Christian groups but
rarely if ever do we find radical agnostics in popular media. We see
them take a poke at agnostics by giving them lines like,
South
Park
also takes “The Poor Kid” as an oppurtunity to take a jab at the
child service system, and some of the mistakes, and presumptions that
can be made throughout the complicated and difficult process of
children being removed from their parent's custody. According to the
Child Welfare Information Gateway, “as of September 30, 2009, there
were an estimated 423,7733 children in foster care.” The
expectation was that fourty-nine percent of these children would
return to their families.
It
is said that the majority left the system to be reunited with their
parents. The word majority however, is a misleading one to use in
this case. Fifty-one percent are reuinited with their parents.
Fourty-nine percent is a enormous minority and should not be
downplayed to the public by any strectch of the mind
(www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/factsheets/foster.cfm)
First, I am agnostic. In viewing this episode, I saw it through a different light. I find that this was a HUGE jab at Christians and not agnostics. Simply because they ended the show with a giant reptilian bird, which we know is simply impossible, at least in this era. I personally believe that the writers for South Park are agnostic and they were attempting to make a jab at Christianity by showing the obsurdity of the Christian belief in a god that hasn't ever truly shown himself, except in folklore.
ReplyDeleteSecond, the child care system in this country is not the greatest. I can say for certain that it is better than most places, for instance, places in Russia and the Ukrane keep their children in dank buildings and rarely interact with them lovingly. What I would rather see is that the child care system be more objective when taking in children. It is worse to take a child out of a poor home and try to place them in a better situation, then it is to leave them in the foster care system all their lives. I believe as long as the child isn't starving and isn't severely abused, then the system should leave well enough alone.
But this is a good example of how the media views these particular subjects. Even if it is a more alternative view. The sarcasm is sometimes hard to read, but for the most part is good. It is an eyeopener for a lot of people.
I'm afraid I have to disagree with you here. Now while I don't personally share their views(although most of the time I do) I do think they are taking a jab at agnostics here. It's not a full frontal a still assaults like they have launched on the Vatican, Christians, Mormons, and Muslims in the past. But it is pointing out some of the quirks of agnostic beliefs. I do think that the giant reptillian bird wasn't a jab at agnostic, but the rest of the episode in combination with addressing serious issues in the child care system was.
ReplyDelete"It is worse to take a child out of a poor home and try to place them in a better situation, then it is to leave them in the foster care system all their lives."
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid I have to go ahead and disagree with you here. If a child is being removed from a home it is never just because of the financial status of the parents. There usually has to be abuse, or neglect for the child to be removed, and I would rather see every child in poor conditions with parents who simply do not care, placed with another family. There are too many things to count wrong with our child care system.
"I believe as long as the child isn't starving and isn't severely abused, then the system should leave well enough alone."
Again, this is a little short-sighted I think. If any type of abuse is consistent throughout the child's life, it will typically lead to psychological distress later on. Whether the abuse be severe or not, I believe that if it is damaging, or in any way, counterproductive to the healthy development of that child, then once again, they should be removed and placed with another family. You can not have healthy adults, if you do not raise healthy children.