"That's the kind of feeling that should develop ... that we would rather let the life-raft sink than sacrifice one person." (The Beach Boys, Smile sessions)
This quote is extracted from an amazing recording of the Beach Boys in the studio, on acid, trying to play a game called "Life Raft", which seems prophetic of Survivor and other such entertainments. The question is the simple moral inquiry: The life-raft is overloaded with people and will sink. Who will be thrown overboard? The greater discussion, which I haven't the patience to detail, involves the rules of the "game"--what does it mean that they have to leave? Some have been known to leave and never come back ....
The most part of it sounds exactly like people on acid, and despite the disorganized nature of the game, it still reaches the unfathomable conclusion (if you'll forgive a liberally-constructed pun).
Will you really look someone in the eye and say, "For the greater good, you are the one to die"?
And why not, then, say, "For the greater good, I shall be the one to die"? (Strangely, I think of Waylon Smithers, of The Simpsons--cf. "Grumbling Grandpa Simpson and the Legend of the Fighting Hellfish".)
We talk about sacrifice, even I do. There are a few broad concepts I'll die for.
Of course, there's always lottery theory: every hour someone else swims beside the boat until the sharks come and resolve the issue.
But what is so affecting to me about this statement is that it is what eventually happened. The Beach Boys took on water, took on water, and took on water, trying for years to avoid sacrificing one person. Denny drowned, Mike took over the band to keep it afloat, Carl is now dead, and "The Beach Boys" no longer faced with the need to sacrifice one member of the family or not, pale in comparison to the potential sacrifice. They went down together, and only Brian Wilson has ever really made it ashore.
There could eventually come to be a nearly religious moral in the story.
Incidentally, at the same time the Beach Boys (Mike Love & co.) played Seattle last (that I know of), they sold a small number of seats for $10, suffering empty seats because the rest of their fans were off at the Gorge Amphitheatre in the middle of nowhere, Washington, watching Brian Wilson play.
But they never sacrificed Brian. The whole time he was in the water, it was the only place he could be. And he wasn't strong enough to pull them all ashore together.
I'd say, "Let that be a lesson to ye," but I don't know what the lesson is.
thanx,
Tiassa
This quote is extracted from an amazing recording of the Beach Boys in the studio, on acid, trying to play a game called "Life Raft", which seems prophetic of Survivor and other such entertainments. The question is the simple moral inquiry: The life-raft is overloaded with people and will sink. Who will be thrown overboard? The greater discussion, which I haven't the patience to detail, involves the rules of the "game"--what does it mean that they have to leave? Some have been known to leave and never come back ....
The most part of it sounds exactly like people on acid, and despite the disorganized nature of the game, it still reaches the unfathomable conclusion (if you'll forgive a liberally-constructed pun).
Will you really look someone in the eye and say, "For the greater good, you are the one to die"?
And why not, then, say, "For the greater good, I shall be the one to die"? (Strangely, I think of Waylon Smithers, of The Simpsons--cf. "Grumbling Grandpa Simpson and the Legend of the Fighting Hellfish".)
We talk about sacrifice, even I do. There are a few broad concepts I'll die for.
Of course, there's always lottery theory: every hour someone else swims beside the boat until the sharks come and resolve the issue.
But what is so affecting to me about this statement is that it is what eventually happened. The Beach Boys took on water, took on water, and took on water, trying for years to avoid sacrificing one person. Denny drowned, Mike took over the band to keep it afloat, Carl is now dead, and "The Beach Boys" no longer faced with the need to sacrifice one member of the family or not, pale in comparison to the potential sacrifice. They went down together, and only Brian Wilson has ever really made it ashore.
There could eventually come to be a nearly religious moral in the story.
Incidentally, at the same time the Beach Boys (Mike Love & co.) played Seattle last (that I know of), they sold a small number of seats for $10, suffering empty seats because the rest of their fans were off at the Gorge Amphitheatre in the middle of nowhere, Washington, watching Brian Wilson play.
But they never sacrificed Brian. The whole time he was in the water, it was the only place he could be. And he wasn't strong enough to pull them all ashore together.
I'd say, "Let that be a lesson to ye," but I don't know what the lesson is.
thanx,
Tiassa