Thanks to Robocop, Altruism Trumps Cynicism in Detroit

Robocop: future Detroit monument. (image via Wikipedia)

Last week, news broke that $50,000 had been successfully raised on the site Kickstarter to construct a statue of Robocop, a character from the 1988 film of the same name. The news created a whirlwind of activity on the internet. Most of it was positive, including comments from yours truly. I was always a big fan of the film, but more importantly, I’m a big fan of the statement it makes.

Many have incorrectly characterized the project as irritating hipster irony run rampant. Firstly, I think they’re confusing it with the Phil Collins Day Parade (also known as Williamsburg Jumps the Shark Day). Second, the project and eventual construction of the statue actually makes a statement by juxtaposing cynical projections of future societies – like the future Detroit portrayed in “Robocop” where crime has run rampant in a city that has cynically privatized its police department – against what Detroit has become in the 21st Century. Both the fictional Detroit represented by the statue and the real Detroit wherein it will reside act as cautionary tales of industry run rampant, and what happens when we allow concerns about profit margins to override concerns about human life and dignity.

Understandably, not everyone sees it that way.

Ron Marz was one of those people. Marz, a legend in the comic industry who resides in the area, tweeted last week about it and inferred it was a shame that so much time, attention, and money will go towards a visual pun rather than something like a soup kitchen for the underserved members of Detroit’s community. It being the internet, this created a firestorm of people who took Ron’s statement out of context and used it as an opportunity to attack someone with greater stature and work out some frustrations that had been brewing all day in their cubicle.

There were some, however, that instead engaged Ron in a very serious and thoughtful debate on the merit of this and other similar ventures.

The result of the latter was RoboCharity.

RoboCharity argues that charity isn’t a zero-sum game, and that the attention given to the Robocop statue can be parlayed to a deserving charity. In this case it’s Forgotten Harvest, an organization which gets food to hungry people in the metro Detroit area.

The results have been astounding so far, with donations pouring in all over the nation and resulting in over 10,000 meals (and climbing) for those most in need.

So what have we learned from this?

One, in a modern American society that is obsessed with self-promotion and a borderline hedonistic obsession with disposable entertainment, altruism is still possible.

Two, Robocop is awesome.

Your move, creeps.