Right vs. Wrong

Just to let you know, there are spoilers for the South Park episode Best Friends Forever (S09E04) contained within the following post. If you'd rather watch that episode than read this entry, I have provided a link to view it legally online at SouthParkStudios.com. Anyway, spoiler alert over.

There is an episode of South Park in which one of the characters, Kenny, is hit by a truck but not killed, thus leaving him in a persistent vegetative state. Two of his buddies, Stan and Kyle, both of whom oft-represent the wise and logical arguments on the show, believe that Kenny is still technically alive and should not be taken off his feeding tube just because another human thinks it is right. Meanwhile, the ever-irritable Eric Cartman, who consistently displays his belief that the ends justify the means, argues that life support is not natural and Kenny should be taken off life support. However, he only wants this because it is in Kenny's Will that should he be pronounced dead, Eric will receive Kenny's prized Sony PSP (at the time of the episode's original airing, the brand new portable gaming system). The story behind Kenny getting hit by that truck takes some silly plot turns involving a war between Heaven and Hell and mocking Keanu Reeves films (specifically the then-recent Constantine), but I'm not going to focus on that half of the episode. Not now anyway.

The plot involving life support results in a Nation-wide, TV-covered story until it is revealed that Kenny's Will specifically states that should he ever end up in a vegetative state, that he not be shown like that on live television. It is at that point when Stan and Kyle realize that they were wrong to turn Kenny's condition into a media-frenzy... but for the right reasons, meanwhile Cartman was completely right about the situation, albeit for the wrong reasons. I guess it really depends on how you view the topic of keeping people in a persistent vegetative state (from which they'll never recover) alive on life support, but if you think about it, it does make sense.

So why am I writing about people being wrong for the right reasons, and right for the wrong reasons? I firmly believe that it can be easily applied to this debate I've been seeing and hearing about the death of Osama bin Laden. I know I just wrote a post earlier today about the very topic, but this is what happens when you drink a can of Monster after going months without an energy drink.

But yes, there seems to be a disagreement about whether or not President Obama's order to assassinate Osama bin Laden was the correct choice, just as well as there being a disagreement about whether or not we, as a country AND as human beings in general, should be celebrating the death of a man, no matter how evil or despised. Both sides make equally valid arguments, so in that case, no one is really "wrong" per se but depending on which side of the debate you stand on, you can easily apply this idea of "right for wrong reasons" and "wrong for right reasons."  At least, you can so long as you're open-minded to acknowledging that the opposing side makes some valid points.

I'm not going to say that there is a definitive side that is the "right for the wrong" side and which is the "wrong for the right" because I think that is virtually impossible from a holistic standpoint. As I've already stated, I was glad to hear that he had been killed. Am I right (a major symbol of terror is dead) for the wrong (celebrating a human being's death) reasons? Or am I wrong (celebrating a human being's death) for the right (a major symbol of terror is dead) reasons?

It's all a matter of how you view it. Obviously not everyone thinks this way, so there's going to be a lot of stubborn people on both sides, as is the case with many things in this country. I hope that this doesn't cause a rift between people for much longer because I think it would be a great opportunity for people to show that even disagreeing sides can get along and be respectful toward each other. I think we need that more than anything right now in this country.
Thank you, South Park. Thank you.