Serious Defamation

Huh how unlike me to tackle a subject like defamation…so serious. That being said here’s my thing about defamation and the laws surrounding it.

To me the entire world is just a little bit like high school. You’ve got the celebrities, you know the popular kids that everyone wants to be like and sit next to at lunch? But instead of winning crowns and football games they’re making more money than anyone else can imagine. And so then you’ve got the B group, you know middle class citizens that make the money and sometimes bump elbows with the rich and famous but are really just there to do the dirty work.

And let’s please not forget the geek squad, but in the real world it is totally a revenge of the nerds situation as they’re making more money than the middle class citizens anyway because they were never afraid to raise their hands in science class and now are engineers and millionaires. And the list goes on and on and on there are all the different groups only instead of crowding the halls in a high school they’re covering the entire planet. The class president suddenly is in control of nuclear weapons and school rivalries have turned into cold wars and acts of terrorism.

So how on earth, you might be wondering, does this relate back to the oh so very serious topic of defamation? Let me go ahead and show you.

Every fifteen year old on the planet gossips and let me tell you…not so very many people grow out of it. But instead of slam books and word of mouth there are a few more options. The smarter that people get, often times, the stupider they act. If you had to ask me I’d probably guess the editor at the Enquirer was probably the gossip god or goddess of high school…I mean no offense…can I be sued for that?!?

Instead of oddly folded notes getting into the wrong hands, and whispers in the hall getting too loud the gossip is in magazines and all over the web. People saying things about the popular kids, people saying things about the nerds and the middle class citizens and that one really weird guy.

And instead of getting sent to the principal’s office for a little smack on the hand, detention and maybe a suspension, all depending of course on what was said – you’ve got people suing other people, demanding money and the ruin of the offender’s reputation. They get their revenge through monetary means, settlements and through justification of the justice system…or something.

But here’s the thing – what was said was still said. The rumor is still out no matter what motivated the person to spread it in the first place, be it an honest mistake or a malicious attack. And also no matter the punishment, be is a slap on the hand or a thirty million dollar law suit. As long as people are alive they are going to be saying things about the jocks, the nerds, the cheerleaders, the prom queen, the weird girl in math class, that one guy who is a millionaire, that kid who stole that one thing from so and so, the president of the class, the president of the country… it can be illegal and it can be wrong but it is still going to happen.

I’m not saying that the laws surrounding defamation are all in vain – they are incredibly important, but given the size of this world wide high school, one has to consider them slightly ineffective. A small price to pay for that silly little thing we American folk like to call Freedom of Speech…but I mean – tell that to Britney.