Exploitation At Its Purest

The shock rock group Hell on Earth has decided that, despite the illegality of their action, they will go on with their concert this weekend which features them opening for a public suicide.

The city of St. Petersburg has just passed a new ordinance making the commercial exploitation of a suicide illegal (why in God's name we have to pass such common sense laws I will never understand or accept). Under Florida state law it is already manslaughter to assist in a suicide.

Yet the band plans to defy both laws. Apparently, the show must go on.

I can understand the band's desire to work to change the assisted suicide laws in Florida. I don't agree with them, but I can understand. But how does the exploitation of a terminally ill person's desire for death further their cause?

Do they think that some lawmaker watching this suicide take place (and I'm sure more than a few will) is going to turn around and change their position on assisted suicide? Do they think that the people watching on their website are going to suddenly be stirred to writing letters to their lawmakers urging the legalization of assisted suicide?

No. The people watching it will be voyeurs. They have little to no interest in the assisted suicide laws. They have little to no interest in the politics that surround the issue. They want to see someone die. In their sick, twisted way, they want to see the blood and carnage of an unnatural end.

In that way, they are simply the extreme end of the people who watch NASCAR solely for the wrecks. They are the extreme end of the people who search the web for autopsy photos. They are the extreme fringe of violence voyeurism.

Unfortunately, as a society we cannot go after the viewers, no matter how contemptable their taste in viewing may be.

But the State must go after the band. The band is not doing this for altruistic reasons. The band is doing this to raise awareness of who they are (will anyone know the victim by anything other than "The Dead Guy?") and to make money. That's all well and fine when it's done legally. But this involves premeditated illegalities. They plan to use the death of another human being for their commercial gain. It is sick. It is contemptable. And it is backfiring on them (look at the gigs they've already lost because of this).

But at its core, this is exploitation at its purest.