Manson Family Values

So far critics have been fairly well-behaved in their analyses of the Manson attack, though now that the entire CD is available everywhere -- even Oklahoma! -- the cretins should be crawling out of their holes any minute. The protectors of our children, the families of various victims, the people who throw the rocks in Shirley Jackson's short story -- Mr. Manson and his familial cohorts are prepared for the worst.

The Mansons are young, mostly mid-twenties, so one has to wonder how Mr. Manson and his bandmates will view their work 30 years from now. "I'm kind of looking forward to being a parent," Mr. M offers. "I'd like to approach it differently than people do in the Nineties. If you tell kids the truth right off the bat, they'll be able to make up their minds for themselves and realize what will hurt them and what won't. I'd tell them, 'Don't have sex because you could get pregnant and get a disease' instead of saying, 'Sex is wrong and you'll go to hell.'

"It's the same with drugs or anything else. Another debate we get into is people ask me if we're adding to the dilemma for kids, because kids communicate through music, and we have a strong message. I say I'm trying to let kids take on the responsibility of being a better listener, to be able to interpret things on an intelligent level. We should raise kids so they can listen to [Body Count's]'Cop Killer' or our stuff and be able to not kill themselves or kill someone else. Unless that's what they want to do. Then they have to take the responsibility.