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Boy Scouts Introduce Merit Badge For Not Pirating
The_Slaughter writes "The MPAA has recruited the boy scouts of America to do their dirty work. Scouts will now be able to learn a merit badge for anti-piracy related activities, including creating public service announcements urging others not to steal movies or music. No word yet on if that includes helping the MPAA file lawsuits against 80-year-old grandmothers."
I wasn't in the boy scouts, but I was in the Explorer portion and that's how I got my private pilot license at 18.
However, I feel that the scout organization has fallen so far from its original intended roots that it's nothing but a special interest shadow of its former self. It's very sad, because what once was an organization that helped kids learn about skills and camping and other simple yet vital tasks for a well rounded person have been hammered away into anti-gay, christian centric whored out to any group that wants type of thing.
As a rock-in-roll Physicist once said, No matter where you go, there you are.
The article isn't clear if this is a regular BSA badge or just something cooked up by the local council, but if it's official, I'm going to sign up to be a merit badge counselor (I'm already a counselor for a dozen other merit badges).
My version will focus on understanding all of copyright law, including (especially) Fair Use, the Doctrine of First Sale and the historical and constitutional basis of copyright law.. I think I'll substitute the "Make a Public Service Announcement" for a 200-word essay on Why the Digital Consumer's Bill of Rights is a good idea".
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
--Chag
However, I feel that the scout organization has fallen so far from its original intended roots that it's nothing but a special interest shadow of its former self. It's very sad, because what once was an organization that helped kids learn about skills and camping and other simple yet vital tasks for a well rounded person have been hammered away into anti-gay, christian centric whored out to any group that wants type of thing
Thanks for saying so well what I've felt often over the past fifteen years. Scouting is nothing more than bitter old men leading impressionable young men around anymore. It's almost like a page program for suburban and exurban white guys.
I was a First Class Scout before leaving when I was 16, to spend more time bike racing. I enjoyed scouts because it let me get outdoors (I'd formerly beena roly-poly little fat computer nerd kid, and while I kept my computer nerd cred, scouts got me outside, working some of that flab off and seeing, doing, and loving the outdoors.
As I crested Muir and Bishop Passes on consecutive days four summers ago, I thought a lot about my time as a scout. I'd never have learned to enjoy the outdoors were it not for my thoughtful and tolerant scoutmaster. Stuff like this - being a shill for big business - and the flaaaaaaming antigay rhetoric coming out of the Boy Scouts is a truly sad thing. The organization could do a lot of good for ALL young men if they chose to.
The quality of the Boy Scouts depends on where you are. I was in the Boy Scouts in the Westmoreland Fayette Council up until 4 years ago(I turned 18). I was openly atheist and recieved Eagle. I knew of a couple openly gay members who also made it through to Eagle. No one cared. Everyone was openly accepting of everyone. I think these are select councils or troops run by extremely socially conservative people.
When I was a boy scout (I would have had to stop due to age 2 years ago but I really stopped 4-5 years ago) my troop was a lot of fun. It wasnt the nerdy bunch that boyscouts were stereotyped as at the time (though there certainly were entire troups like that) but was really a bunch of good people. Had a lot of focus on camping and outdoors type stuff rather than pushing certain ideals and morals (well, there was still the good-doing ideals but nothing remotely like the anti-gay stuff). I never really advanced too far as I only went for merit badges I was interested in so I ignored a lot of the "required" merit badges like swimming since while I certainly can swim, it was a lot of time and foolish tests to prove I could swim rather than learning about something new with another merit badge. It was a lot of fun either way and the way the organization seems to be going these days makes me kind of sad.
Something tells me that I wont be willing to be a scoutmaster by the time I have children...
Bottles.
I was in the Boy Scouts, from start to finish...started as a Cub Scout as soon as I could get in, stayed in until I was 21, and then served four years as a Scoutmaster. I was also in the OA, Explorers, and several other "side groups" (for lack of a better term). This was in the 60s through the 80s. I have nothing but fond memories of the experiences. There are **MANY** positive skills I learned and things I did that I would have never experienced without having been a Boy Scout.
That was then, this is now.
Now I'll echo what you say here. The organization has changed so much from what it was then that if I had children and they were to ask to be in Scouts, I'm not sure I would approve. I ceased donating even my money in the mid-90s.
I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
The scouts can drop by my microcinema studio and see how I release all my movies for FREE under a Creative Commons licence.
Will they still get their badge?
- Just my $0.02, take with a grain of salt, your mileage may vary.
You have a very good point.
While 99% are successfully brainwashed, the wonder about humans is that 1% seem to do what they have to do regardless. Call it destiny, a sense of purpose, or being a sociopath.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Oh, they have value to me, too. However, to me "duty" does not mean "following laws which make no sense and which are actually harmful to society" and "integrity" means to live by my beliefs, not by yours. Your rhetoric continues to be underwhelming. Now let's talk about truth and honor. Truth, well, truth is subjective so I'll not go into it now. Honor to me means not going back on your word. I never promised to follow bullshit laws, so my honor is not compromised by lying to avoid being penalized for not following them.
Your attempt to paint me as a dishonorable individual because I'm willing to lie in situations in which I shouldn't be asked a question at all is ridiculous, because I am not a sheep. I make my own decisions and I don't need the court to tell me about right or wrong. If you do, then I have nothing but pity for you.
Obeying an unjust law is not the right thing, it is the wrong thing. Allowing yourself to get in trouble for doing something that does not hurt anyone is not the right thing, it is the stupid thing - unless you really want to be a poster child for civil disobedience.
Now, ignoring unjust laws, and being unrepentant - that is the right thing to do, at least in my book. So what we have here is a clash of ideologies, in which we each believe the other is missing something important. You think I'm missing honor, but I keep my word when given, so clearly that's a matter of definitions. I think what you're missing is a willingness to grasp reality and manipulate it, instead you are ruled by it. I think what is needed here is an agreement to disagree.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
The boys scouts are "Jesus Camp":
Can't be atheist http://www.komotv.com/news/story.asp?ID=21204
But lets get their belief on their "Duty to God" strait from their legal department
http://www.bsalegal.org/faqs-195.asp
I am all for letting everyone practice whatever their beliefs, but I am for letting them practicing equally. I have a personal beef with the schools system for only allowing religious organizations that they personally find acceptable. The local school even states in their policy that the only uniforms allowed are for ROTC and Boy Scouts. I am a humanist, I believe in Peace and Getting support from other human being instead of waiting for divine intervention (on a personal note, I think I have made an involentary exception to that for the upcomming elections), why can't I have an organization advertised in the school by allowing the children to wear a uniform?
> As an Eagle Scout, I can say first-hand that the Boy Scouts DOES teach scouts how to obey the law.
Just out of curiosity, do they also teach the scouts that there are cases where you should disobey the law?
It's an activity patch or some-such, not an actual merit badge. The difference? It doesn't mean anything in terms of advancement, it's just a patch. Sure, some people will do it anyway, since it's easy. Some troops might run programs in it, either because it's a boy scout program that's relatively easy to put together and fun to do (A movie studio, remember?), or because they actually believe what it's teaching. But it's not a merit badge. It doesn't go on the merit badge sash (not that scouts wear those much,) and it doesn't count towards Eagle, or any other rank.
The distinction may sound trivial on slashdot, but it's nontrivial within the organization. Even among merit badges, some are easy and some are hard. Some are more respected than others. An activity patch for knowing what copyright infringement is? It's not even going to register on the status board. Maybe some kids will get to see a movie studio, but that's okay.
As to all the comments about Boy Scouts not being what it used to be--that's true, in some ways. A lot of things have changed, in Boy Scouts and in American culture. That's not all bad. Some is, and some isn't. The thing that influences the program most is the quality, not only of the youths who become leaders in the program, but of the adult volunteers that make it happen and show them how to lead. Two troops in the same town, with members of the same socioeconomic background, can be as different as night and day because they have different leaders. Don't sit on your rear and say what a bad program it is--fix it. A good troop can change the lives of a lot of boys, in a good way.
Of course there are politics, and there have been major disagreements about what values the Boy Scouts should be instilling. They argue that there is a God--whatever name you may call him by--and that it is immoral to embrace a gay lifestyle. Every scout takes an oath to do his duty "to God and his country," and promises to keep himself "morally straight." Maybe you agree with the policies and maybe you don't, but as an organization, the Boy Scouts of America has the right to say "this is what we want to teach." They're not preaching hate--but they are saying that they believe some things are wrong. They don't ask you if you're gay, ever--but if you come out as gay, in some councils at least, you're out of the organization. They have their beliefs, and they stick to them. I don't like some of those beliefs, but I believe they have the right to stick to them.
There are other organizations that are smaller, that are more inclusive, as an alternative. It's an imperfect world. Not everyone is tolerant. The Boy Scouts aren't tolerant of open gays, and a lot of others are intolerant towards the Boy Scouts because of that intolerance. Intolerance breeds intolerance. But we still each should have the right the choose what we believe is right, and what we believe is wrong. That the BSA does a lot of good doesn't absolve them of responsibility for their intolerance, but it does seem to increase the relative depth of the hypocracy of the BSA's critics.
I remember talking with a friend of mine. We were part of a much larger group of college friends who had "camped" out in a cabin in the woods one night, singing late into the night whatever random songs we all knew and telling ghost stories (Sam McGee) and the like. And my friend was glad because of how much he enjoyed the experience and yet sad because he didn't expect he'd ever have one like it again. In part, I think, because he wasn't an overly woodsy type, but also because he was gay. Now most boy scouts can't sing half so well as that group (one or three of us excluded,) but still, much of the night was beautiful. It is a terrible crime that they should deny him that experience. There's no two ways about that. (One could move the agency if one wished; but at best it is shared.)
But if we were intolerant of their intolerance... where does it end? It is possible for men of good conscience to disagree, ev