Bonsai Kitten Stunt Is Bad Idea

Update 25-Feb-2001: Bonsai Kitten site has changed to a cult fad humor theme. Originally, it was presented as a much more believeable amateur Web site put up by an Asian doctor who was seriously advocating the torture of cats. I still think the BK site is in poor taste and still a bit harmful, but it's less harmful now, and people who are just now tuning in won't appreciate the original effect.

If you don't already know what Bonsai Kitten is, consider yourself lucky, and read no further.

Several times, I've been asked if I'm the one responsible for the Bonsai Kitten Web site. I get asked this because I and a person who was involved with Bonsai Kitten both happen to belong to a certain online social group, and rumors within the group about "one of the MIT guys" get garbled and misinterpreted.

So, at the risk of playing along with a media hack by acknowledging it, I finally put up this page to state for the record that I have no involvement with the Bonsai Kitten site, and that I think the site is a bad idea.

At time of this writing (18 February 2001), rumor has it that the creators of Bonsai Kitten are doing it as a stunt to provoke and then mock the people who would naturally be upset by Bonsai Kitten. Reportedly, email addressed to the webmaster of bonsaikitten.com is automatically sent to a list of people who are only peripherally involved with the site, for their amusement. Rumor also has it that the Bonsai Kitten creators claim that they are doing it to make a statement of some unspecified kind about freedom of speech.

It's also conceivable that Bonsai Kitten is a poorly-conceived prank that has developed a media life of its own, with which the creators are now simply playing along. Another possibility is that the creators (or perhaps just the primary instigator) are doing it as a personal publicity stunt, in an odd attempt to help develop a name for themselves outside of MIT.

I consider the Bonsai Kitten site to be an irresponsible stunt, for several reasons:

1. Suggestion and Desensitization   Shortly after the Columbine school shootings, Marvin Minsky was chatting with MIT students before class and made an off-the-cuff remark that I found very intelligent. He said (I'm paraphrasing crudely from memory) that there will always be some percentage of the population that is capable of terrible acts, and that by giving so much attention to the Columbine shootings, we are planting ideas in the minds of people and wearing down mental censors against antisocial acts — essentially making the unthinkable thinkable. It is media stunts like Bonsai Kitten that remind me of Minsky's remark. I wonder how many people there are out there who've had their minds subtly altered by exposure to the Bonsai Kitten site, such that they'll later perform antisocial acts that they wouldn't have, had Bonsai Kitten not given them an extra little cognitive push.

2. Backlash   Let's say there's a heroic activist who wants to advocate free speech rights. To accomplish this, he decides to engage in irresponsible speech that is needlessly harmful, straining the tolerance of moderates who were previously supportive of free speech rights. As an added bonus, amateur supporters of the activist's stunt manage to alienate additional moderates. In the next legislative session, the ACLU works overtime to try to defeat new anti-free-speech legislation that was buoyed by reaction to the activist's stunt, whilst casting a wary eye at the increasingly conservative Supreme Court. How mind-bogglingly brilliant of the activist.

3. Image   Contrary to popular belief, MIT is more than just a school for borderline sociopaths who are good at math. MIT culture does tend to breed ill-informed elitist attitudes and a simple-minded devotion to Objectivist philosophy among some of its students, but there are also quite a few thoughtful people and progressive thinkers at the infamous geek haven.

4. Garbage   Our popular media is dominated by trash journalism, empty sensationalism, and dishonest manipulation of public perceptions. The Bonsai Kitten stunt is just one more example of what is bad with how we use media.

18 February 2001