Internet petitions never accomplish anything useful. I’ve never once heard of a politician giving in to pressure mounted online or of change happening based on “internet signatures” which are no more than unverified email addresses. I’ve never even heard of anybody looking at such a thing if they were not signing it.
I recently was invited to join a group dedicated to the noble pursuit of futility on Facebook. But the reason I didn’t join was not just because I think internet protesting is for causes people care about too little to actually protest. It was also because this was a dumb petition.
From the group:
“In 2007, the ‘artist’ Guillermo Vargas Habacuc, took a dog from the street, tied him to a rope in an art gallery and began starving him to death. For several days, the ‘artist’ and the visitors of the exhibition watched, emotionless, the shameful ‘masterpiece’ based on the dog’s agony, until eventually he died.
Does THIS sound like art to you?
But this is not all… the prestigious Visual Arts Biennial of Central America decided that the ‘installation’ WAS actually art, so Guillermo Vargas Habacuc has been invited to repeat his cruel action for the Biennial of 2008.
Let’s STOP HIM!!!!!
Here is another petition that is 2 million signatures strong. Please feel free to sign it as well:
http://www.petitiononline.com/13031953/petition.html
Please do it. It’s free of charge, there is no need to register, and it will only take 1 minute to save the life of an innocent creature.
Please also invite as many friends to this group as you can… We need to join forces to stop a murderer”
A petition 32 million asdf@asdf.com’s strong failed to incite any change. I’m surprised! And something about this just didn’t smell right.
AND, for those of you saying “This is all a hoax, etc,” here is a direct quote FROM THE ‘ARTIST’ himself!:
“I knew the dog died on the following day from lack of food. During the inauguration, I knew that the dog was persecuted in the evening between the houses of aluminum and cardboard in a district of Managua. 5 children who helped to capture the dog received 10 bonds of córdobas for their assistance. The name of the dog was Natividad, and I let him die of hunger in the sight of everyone, as if the death of a poor dog was a shameless media show in which nobody does anything but to applaud or to watch disturbed. In the place that the dog was exposed remain a metal cable and a cord. The dog was extremely ill and did not want to eat, so in natural surroundings it would have died anyway; thus they are all poor stray dogs: sooner or later they die or are killed.”
I’m forgiving the poor grammar on the part of the group’s creators–it is, after all, Facebook. But I’m not forgiving them for extraordinarily poor reading comprehension. This artist is making the exact same point that they are–and he’s doing better than them, too, because his art is getting noticed, whereas their 2 million qwerty@qwerty.com’s aren’t.
How can I possibly defend this?
Simply.
1. The dog was already going to die.
2. Nobody would otherwise know about it.
3. Nobody would otherwise care–and this is what he’s trying to demonstrate.
The exhibit is obviously about the way people won’t take action against problems they can’t see. But when it’s put in front of them, they start caring. This is inconsistent: suffering happens whether we see it or not. The existence of this petition–rather than one for street animals–is, in fact, proof that the artist is correct.
The group gets more and more ridiculous in their utter lack of anything resembling reading comprehension:
This man not an artist in any sense of the word. He is a criminally insane sadist and enjoys inflicting prolonged suffering upon his innocent victims. He is a danger to all of society as it is well documented that those with the capacity to intentionally cause harm to an animal have the same capacity to harm humans.
To state that this animal would have died eventually of natural causes is unjustifiable and beyond logical and rational thinking.
To allow Guillermo Habacuc Vargas to represent Costa Rica in Bienal Centroamericana Honduras 2008 will in no way benefit Costa Rica. The world is watching and the actions of this so called “artist” have brought many negative assumptions as to the humanity of the people of Costa Rica. The fact that the many witnesses of this animals suffering did nothing and that the organizers of this event allowed this rather than taking action to see that Guillermo Vargas be criminally charged with animal abuse send a message to the world that Costa Rica consists of a cruel and uncivilized society that has no regard for life but enjoys viewing and contributing to the loss of life.
Tl;dr: “Yes, he is a sadist. We drew this conclusion from things other than our knee-jerk reactions. Also, I’m racist against Costa Ricans now, and it’s all your fault.”
People who sign this petition look like this:
They are totally and completely missing the point.
