When I first call Jack Thompson, the overwhelming thought in my mind is: Does he remember trying to sue me? I'm not scared, per se... but filled with a sense of unease. Maybe what Hunter S. Thompson would have dubbed The Fear -- an undercurrent of weird.
Thompson is, after all, a legend in his own way. A man whose caricature we know very well: fire-breathing hell-beast of anti-video game activism. The Internet, and many gamers, say that the Florida-based lawyer -- well known for his aggressive stances on violent video games -- is a crusading fascist of some kind, an anti-fun machine. However, as with most things one finds on the Internet (a great bastion of space that has a stunning propensity to turn people stupid), I found a lot of crap to filter through.
During our conversation, I learn that Jack hadn't tried to sue me at all -- it was all just some wacky miscommunication that tied into my then-boss's belief that I was, in fact, a cabbage-headed moron who was going to a run CBSNews.com into the ground. I also learn that Jack doesn't hate games at all, and respects their creators -- despite his well-known and heartfelt belief that violent games shouldn't make their way into kids' hands, and his often passionate responses to disdain.
Jack's actually a stern believer in keeping the government out of our lives. And, perhaps more importantly, Jack might be the most interesting thorn ever to introduce itself into the gaming industry's side.
This is Jack Thompson.
He's just turned 59. He has a prankster smirk. He tells me that he still has time "to achieve sanity."
"I was interested in politics at a very early age. At the age of nine, I remember standing in my playground before going into what we called homeroom in Bay Village, Ohio -- a western suburb of Cleveland -- while holding a Nixon for President sign on election day, November 1960. So at the age of nine, I was already a member of the vast right-wing conspiracy."Whether that was truly the start of his conservative lean, only Jack can be sure. But as he grew up in what he calls those "lily-white" suburbs of Ohio, he became more deeply entrenched in local and national politics.
"In my senior year of high school, Martin Luther King was shot, Robert Kennedy was shot. I was the student mayor of my high school. It was a 3,000-student high school, so that was kind of a big deal, at least for me. And when I was mayor for a day, we got to preside over the city council. I proposed an open housing ordinance -- and I'm so old that I know what that means, many people younger wouldn't understand -- but it was basically to desegregate my all-white city. And all hell broke loose, I had my life threatened."On the other side of the line, Jack laughs. It's a fatherly chuckle, as if we're sharing a drink at the dining room table.
"What was very cool was, the mayor of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio -- where I did that -- was Bruce Thomas [who served as mayor from 1968-1969]. I think he was blind, literally. His slogan was, 'Vote for Bruce Thomas, he's a man of vision.' But, bless his heart, when we did that as our contribution to the civil rights movement, he said to the media, 'I fully support what Jack and these other young people have done.'"Jack says he went from being a "starry-eyed liberal" to a conservative who styled himself after William F. Buckley. Or, at least, one who learned a lot from the creator of modern conservatism.
"I read his stuff, and a lot of it made sense to me... government is just too freaking big. Government can be -- is -- the great tyrant."Buckley himself is generally considered an intensely important intellectual figure, especially in politics. Whether one agrees with his stances or not, one cannot ignore the man's tremendous impact on the national scene. He practically kick-started the modern conservative movement, paving the way for Goldwater Republicans and Ronald Reagan. Of course, Buckley had a hell of a time with the lefty literary lion Gore Vidal, too -- and not in pleasant ways.
"I subscribe to the three legs of the stool of conservatism, as Ronald Reagan defined them. A strong defense, limited government, and a moral basis for culture. That's what I became, that's what I still am."I start to interrupt Jack without trying to be rude, but...
"That's where I'm most misunderstood. People think that I want a government dictating everything from movie taste to what kind of popcorn you eat, but, go ahead."