Valentines Day – Sam Loves You, yeah yeah yeah
By Sam Spencer IV

First, I owe ALL of you an apology. If I am trying to help everyone and strive for equality, it is
pretentious, arrogant, charlatan, vulgar, and rude of me to be as preachy as I was in my recent diatribe "DBZ is a waste of your time and your life". In a free civilized nation, if I find something abhorrent (i.e.: people thinking of themselves above others), I'm allowed to object to it, but I have no right to say, "It's my way or the highway." Though I had no intention of coming off in this manner, I realize that I did and I was wrong. You alone control your destiny.

On to other things, I have to say, "Wow!" I'm glad my stupid editorial got so much attention. That's right, STUPID editorial. That was probably the most error-ridden dribble that has been typed by my hands since the article I was forced to do, called "Titanic: Movie of the Decade" (A title which, in my humble opinion, deserves to go to "Forrest Gump". It works on so many levels, and comes out so pure. But I digress). I rushed that editorial because I wanted to put out something raw … I didn't even grammar check it. Since there was some confusion, here is the revised thesis:

DBZ is a good show ... if that's all you're looking for. It has a dramatic storyline, good music, and
sometimes tear-jerking emotion. But it's only a show. Don't let the webmasters tell you that it has any intellectual or moral value, because it doesn't. Those who are engrossing themselves in the show are wasting their lives, unless you are making a substantial amount of money off it. Entertainment should only be used for two things: the acquisition of knowledge and catharsis. Right now the emphasis that the American "system" (and the Japanese system, to some degree) has put on one's own pleasure (though the surgeon general that wanted to teach masturbation resigned ... but I digress) is leading to the degradation of ethical and moral values in America.

There. I'm sorry, I didn't edit that thing at all, mainly because I was trying to block out all the censors in my mind (notice that the "F-word" magically appeared).

Now, many of you think that that was a shameless attack on DBZ. It was, but if you think that that was the purpose of the editorial, take a tip from "American Beauty" and look closer. The editorial was about how humans focus too much on themselves, about how selfish we are. Before I dive into this, though, I'm going to analyze some of the VERY valid objections made to my editorial by the "Dragon Ball Writing Force", which includes a man I hold in high esteem, Steve Harmon.

"A short illustration of why I watch Dragonball so much is in order. Everything I see on Dragonball/Z/GT is everything I imagined as a child. Escapism? Definitely, I tap into the wonder and freedom I felt as a child when I didn't have to worry about adult concerns. I do feel a release or a cleansing when I watch the show, a release of stress. I can think more clearly through any problems that have beset me recently. "
-SSJPabs

This is a very good argument, one that I cannot refute. Though I usually think that forcing your beliefs on someone is abhorrent, I admit that my bashing of DBZ was unfair (the main purpose of it being shock value and attention). If DBZ is your boat, float with it. On the other hand, I stand by my argument that you can only get something from it for so long, and a lot of people are holding on to it for too long. Don't let your anger and frustration at DBZ build as you become less and less attached to it, just let it go and remember all the great times you had with Toriyama-san and Son Gokou (wow, it always feels good to type that name).

"'Those who are engrossing themselves in the show are wasting their lives, unless you are making a substantial amount of money off it.' What's he saying here? Doing something you enjoy is wrong unless you stand to profit from it? Does material wealth somehow justify an otherwise detrimental activity? I don't believe so. I watched DBZ because I enjoyed watching it. I made a website because I enjoyed graphics-editing and learning html. I didn't make a cent doing either of these things. So I suppose I'm living a sick, depraved life. Sam's rationale justifies...oh, say murder-for-hire. An assassin isn't pursuing his hobby for the sheer joy of it, which would be inherently wrong. He's just making a buck. He's functioning properly in Mr. Spencer's twisted version of society. I however am destroying said society by making a website just for funsies. Sounds a little wacky,
doesn't it? Hold on, it gets better. "
-Steve Harmon

This line was taken out of context. I'm saying that it's ok to engross yourself in something if it is your job. Now, having a hobby is fine, and very beneficial; I'm just saying that it's not good to go overboard.

"Spencer gives us a brief list of acceptable entertainment, which includes the film "American Beauty." He seems especially fond of this movie, which is in my opinion a trite and overrated satire that oversimplifies the popular myth of thourougly-dysfunctional suburbia. It's a thinly veiled stab at middle-class America, thrusted into our chests by a bunch of bloated Hollywood elitists who refuse to believe that their lifestyle is not the only one with merit. Or so I think. I guess I just missed the life-changing aspects of the film while I was busy wasting my life enjoying myself. "
-Steve Harmon

First off, my list was merely some suggestions for things that are hard to refute as being catalysts for catharsis. Secondly, If you think "American Beauty" was a over-simplified stab at the middle-class, you're fitting in to their stereotype. The movie is about the beauty in life, and living life to its fullest, something that I find hard to do in front of a TV, or only caring about what you have. Lester (Kevin Spacey) is a man who is unhappy with his life, so he changes it. In doing this, in experiencing new things and opening himself up to new ideas, he realizes the innate beauty in everything. If that isn't a good message, I don't know what is.

"Sam continues his preachy diatribe, informing us that freedom is counter-productive. Counter-productive to what? What are we trying to produce here? What's the goal that liberty is keeping us away from? A Utopian paradise like the Soviet Union? Freedom was in short supply there, Sam, and look what the result was. Maybe the Soviets spent too much time pursuing mindless interests like "survival" when they weren't busy bettering themselves under the watchful eye of Big Brother.

Sam also advocates the caste system. You can see stunning examples of this social theory in countries like India, where the ruling caste's brutal subjugation of the lower castes (which of course comprise the majority of the country's citizens) has become something of a tradition. I suppose that economic squallor and dismal literacy rates are mere byproducts of the success a population achieves after discarding such frivolous ideals as freedom and individual rights."
-Yet again, our friend Steve.

Well, as I have said in many articles before, socialism and communism are better systems than democracy and capitalism, as long as you leave out a little thing called "human nature". I'm aware that almost everywhere where communism has been introduced is now in shambles. It's only because the rich and the ones in power use it as bait to tempt the common man, and then use it to screw him when they take too much of a share for themselves. Of course, if you do what Steve has done and take what I think out of my ideal world and place it in the real world, it doesn't work. From that basis, you can reasonably say that I advocate the caste system, which I don't. I just say that if we were in an ideal society, where everyone cared more about others than themselves, people would perform the job that would put the community above their own success. If this were to happen, though the odds of it are slimmer than Ally McBeal, we would have the time to spend on entertainment. Steve is right, and I am right, but both in different contexts.

"Furthermore, his fundamental argument that entertainment for entertainment's sake is a deplorable waste is absurd. If you like watching dumb movies and laughing at dumb jokes, then by all means continue. If that's all you do, perhaps you should reconsider your lifestyle. But I'm not going to tell you that you're a bad person because you place value in things that I don't consider valuable. I won't tell that your life is a waste because you haven't followed my guide to useful living."
-Steve Harmon

Steve is absolutely right, as long as you believe that I'm telling you what to do. I was merely stating that it disgusts me that so many of us can sit down and watch "Survivor" while people in most of the rest world live worse of than Richard Hatch. You can sit back and watch these atrocities happen, or you can try and do something about it; it's your choice, and Steve decides to be apathetic.

He also states that I hate all forms of entertainment, which is absurd. I state clearly in my editorial that everyone needs entertainment, but that in America that we are all too often letting crap into our brains. Sure, it's true I have no right to tell you what's good and what's bad, but I can suggest what might be better. What do you think is going to be more valuable to you in the future: four episodes of "Friends" or the same two hours reading "Siddhartha"? It's your choice, but I will tell you that everyone I know who has read the book will say the latter.

"The first step is to open your mind and acknowledge the questions that are presented to your mind. The thoughts do creep into your minds regardless of who you are, but it's your choice whether or not you suppress them. Whether you choose contentment, or the universe. Let your mind find out what your existence means to you. I can't tell you, Sam Spencer certainly can't tell you, you parents can't tell you, your school can't tell you, your government can't tell you. What they can tell you is to open your mind and take the world on. Mindless conformity is a choice as well. I am not even going to begin to tell you how to realize what life means to you, for I certainly don't know. I listen to music and write poetry to let my mind free of it's bounds. What will you do? The only thing you can do is to decide."
-Kienzan

If I haven't pointed out my errors enough already, I'll reiterate: it's your life, and it's your choice. I just think that living for others (especially that special person known as your valentine) can bring you more enjoyment than the boob tube.

"We're all looking for something entertaining that we can engross ourselves in because it's FUN to do so."
-Jonathan Cotleur

Well, the point of my editorial was expressing the fact that we need to spend less time on ourselves and give some of our "fun" to the man who cares enough about his family to work three shifts to put food on the table.

"One particular example of this kind of self-incriminating arrogance is when he states: "Right now the empathizes that the American "system" (and the Japanese system, to some degree) has put on self-pleasurement (though the surgeon general that wanted to teach masturbation resigned ... but I digress) is leading to the degradation of ethical and moral values in America. In simple words, for simple people: If you are watching TV just because it's there, fuck you."
"Empathizes"? "Pleasurement"? There is a lesson in this: Do not slam your reader's intellect right after a convoluted, grammatically-horrifying attempt at sentence composition."
-Jonathan

You got me there; I messed up. I'm sorry.

"In his opinion, DBZ does not fit the other bill either, that it offers to morals or values (i.e. acquisition of knowledge). If "Boy Scout adjectives" are all he got from DBZ, then I feel sorry for him, because I've gotten MUCH more. I've gotten the kinds of values that almost seem to go in the opposite direction of ones found in popular American entertainment, and that has had a major impact on me. Now, is my entire outlook on life changed? No, no one thing can ever, or should ever, have that kind of an effect on someone. If it does, then you're weak-minded and should be feared."
-Jonathan

He's absolutely right in his last two lines if he has a problem with fundamentalist Christians. But,
personally, though I was unfair and harsh on DBZ, it isn't something I would place in the upper-echelon of higher entertainment. Though it's a great show, and I would normally say that it's a good example of something that can be good for catharsis, it takes way too long to convey it's messages to you, and a lot of the episodes are fillers. So I personally think that when you weight cost to benefit, it may be a waste of your time, if you watch it in the excessive manner that many of you seem to be watching it in. Of course you can disagree, that's just my thought, not a dogma I'm trying to launch down your throats like a ham sandwich to Mama Cass. But no matter how you view DBZ, or what you get from it, one fact does hold true: the movies have no value in the metaphysical or intellectual realm. Those are popcorn, nothing more.

"DBZ is a "popcorn" show. I can't deny that, nor would I want to. But the difference between an
American popcorn show and a Japanese popcorn show shines through when you watch it, doesn't it? There is QUITE the difference."
-Jonathan

I disagree. You must have not seen some of the crap that Japan can put out; you've only seen the good.

"It all comes to a head once this line is read, though: 'Yep, I can sit in front of Lain, on DVD, all day and not break my TV limit. Why? Because stuff like that can change you.'

Okay, so it's fine to obsess over the stuff he happens to approve of, is that it? 'Lain can change you,' that's it? It's just a fact of life, huh? But it doesn't end here. He goes on to recommend "American Beauty," followed by an actual category-by-category list of things we 'should' watch, read, or listen to."
-Jonathan

Wow, it sure is fun to take things out of context, again, or maybe even change what I say. I should have elaborated on the Lain thing, but if you were to watch it you many of you would see more in it than in DBZ. A lot of you would see more in DBZ. I'm just saying what I personally like, and what has moved me, not what is mandatory that you watch. Please don't fight back with the "DBZ has changed me" argument until you can honestly say to yourself that that is the truth. Many of you can, and have a right to be offended. But according to my overflowing mailbox, a lot of you can't say that.

"Of particular amusement is the presence of the Torah, Koran, AND Siddhartha on his list. I doubt he's read all of those. Besides, '80% of us are Christian' anyway, so who cares, right?

Let me put forth my 'thesis' on Sam Spencer. I believe he's read something or heard something that has altered his outlook on life, and he is now in a phase. A phase in which he is dismissing DBZ totally and embracing other things, such as religion, in its stead (which tells you what about the place in his life DBZ occupied previously?). For folks like Sam Spencer, there can be no balance. He's riding on a temporary high, he's gonna change the world, put away childish things, etc.

We've all gone through these spats, Sam. They're called phases, and adolescents are most prone to going through them."
-Jonathan

Now Jonathan has decided to break the rule that he stated at the top of his editorial, which was that his editorial was not a flame. This is the kind of ignorance Jonathan accuses me of, plain and simple. I have read all of those books (though a proper Muslim would say I have not read the Koran, and she would be right. According to the Islamic faith, you cannot read the true doctrine of the prophet in a language other than Arabic). I have, in fact, become much more critical of religion, since it is something that people use to their advantage. I just listed some religious books because many of them have good messages. I have no problem with Jesus; conversely, I love the guy. I just have a problem with the "Christians" who are forcing their beliefs on other people, advocating violence in the name of a Messiah who was against it, and limiting the freedom of others (specifically homosexuals and women) because of their own beliefs. If a woman wants an abortion, who are we to say that that is wrong? If a man finds the person who totally completes
him and makes him a whole, but in another man, who are we to stop him from going after the one he loves?

Also, Jon states that I'm on a temporary high, but I've come to this point on my own terms, after a long period of analyzing the world. I am an altruistic person, and I want what's best for humanity, even if it kills me. Jon tells me to throw away my dreams and ambitions (which I have had for a long time, putting them out of the classification of a "phase"), and in doing so he is being part of the American system that thwarts independent thought while "reminding" me of the "truth"; that I am important, much more important than others. Though much of my editorial came off as hypocritical, Jon's blind hypocrisy is the kind that leads to a life devoted to your self.

With all the quoting out of the way (which I thank you for reading), I want to say (again) that I only want to express my beliefs, and that is what editorials are for. If I want to say that I think DBZ is a waste, I'm allowed to (though I love DBZ and have many fond memories of my time with it, and depending on how you watch it, it isn't a waste of time ;-)). I just wanted to say that I think that our way of putting ourselves above others appalls me. You're allowed to do that, and you're allowed to disagree with what I say. You're allowed to think that the meaning of life lies in what's in it for you. I just want you to have open minds, and allow a radical new though to enter your minds. Sure, mine came with a lot of baggage, like bad grammar and random bits of idiocy, but the IDEA was there, and that's what's important. If you watch DBZ, and you see Gokou, who puts the well being of others above that of himself, it's the IDEA of altruistic thought that's important. That being said, I really do love DBZ. You can get a lot from it; you get to see a pure person. The same goes for "Forrest Gump". "American Beauty" is a bit different; you get to see Lester change into a pure person. I just hope you gals and guys can open yourselves up to an idea before you dismiss it, and that you can re-evaluate your lives and find what's truly best for you. That's what Lester did, that's what I did. You don't have to do it, I'm merely suggesting it.

I love each and every one of you. Even those who called me a "faggot" (which is comparable to the "N-word". Would you call an African-American the "N-word"? No? Then I suggest you don't use this "F-word" either). I really do love each one of you, and I'm willing to give myself up to save some of you. This doesn't mean I'll do your homework for you; I have my own to do. Everyone needs an education, and I suggest you get one. An education in math, in science, in the arts, in life. To help with the education in life, here is my revised list of SUGGESTED (since I really was not clear enough last time) materials.

DVD-
American Beauty
Rushmore
Evangelion
Lain
*Gulp* Subbed DBZ
Chasing Amy
Dogma
Clerks
Good Will Hunting
Dr. Strangelove
2001: A Space Odyssey
Yellow Submarine
Whatever you can think of.

Books-
Siddhartha
Koran
Bible
Torah
Les Miserables
Night
Things Fall Apart
Crime and Punishment
A Brief History of Time
Hyperspace
The Communist Manifesto
The Fourth Dimension

Music-
Beach Boys – Pet Sounds
The Beatles – Revolver, Abbey Road, Rubber Soul, White Album, Sgt. Pepper
Moby – Play
Dave Matthews Band – Before These Crowded Streets, Crash
Pachebel – Kanon D-Dur
John Lennon – Imagine
Radiohead – Kid A
Rage Against the Machine – Rage
EMINEM – The (whatever my pseudonym is this year) LP
and many more

Enjoy your lives, but do watch what you put into your brains. You alone can pass judgment on what you watch, but don't let stuff you know to be dumb in.

Peace and Love, Brothers and Sisters. I'm enthralled with you all. Oh, yeah, one last thing: if you
responded, negatively or positively, to my editorial, PLEASE e-mail me at ssj4sam@aol.com . I have nothing against any of you; I think it'd be cool to talk!

"And when the broken-hearted people, living in the world agree: there will be an answer."

-The Beatles

"Take care of yourselves. And each other"
-Jerry Springer