What the heck is wrong with these stupid kids?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJMmm407EIk

What are these people doing!?! Wow, it just shows the ignorance people possess in this world. Next time they want to learn an instrument: they should buy the flute, they should pay for lessons, they should pay for music and such. Learn something called reality people...

This kind of shows is essentially aggressive for us. So it is normal we have negative reactions.

I had a negative reaction with a similar video some time ago, in that case the 4x4 was replaced by a hammer. But then I apologized, because the author felt I was not understanding the idea behind destructing a crap flute in front of a camera. And he/she was right. I did not understand it and still don't, but I have to accept his/her right to do it. And even to find it funny (for them).

To be positive, somehow these things could be taken as "performances" in the old sense of the 60/70s.

Also, they could be fun for different people, those trying to find new thrills (and not trills) at any cost. This is the case, I suppose, of the youngsters doing this in the video.

However to most musicians, young or older, it makes us feel sort of a knot forming in our throats. So I hope this video and the hill of comments it is producing, do not trigger a wave of imitation in other fellow musicians, here or anywhere.

In spite of the love-hate relationship we could have at certain moments with a failing instrument, contention would be the right answer to our primary destruction impulses...

that was stupid, my flute was cheap, but i'd never run it over, even if i was !***!ed off with it.

I just went off on those dumb kids.

If my step daughter did anything like that...

1. She would never have a car while she lived in my home. She would not be allowed to drive my car. There is no telling what she would do to it!

2. She would never get another Christmas or Birthday gift.

3. She would be lucky to get new clothes. She would now be shopping at Goodwill exclusively.

I don't care how cheap the flute was. Some kids would love to play an instrument and their parents are too poor to get them even a cheap used piece of crap to play.

That just shows a complete lack of respect that they have for their parents and all of the hard work that they do so that their children can have a good life and nice things.

Those kids need to get jobs and buy thier own things. Lets see how far they will go on minimum wage. I hope thier parents see the video and take away the car! They could have punctured the tires!

Ok, how stupid can you be!? Why would you want to pretty much completely destroy a perfectly good instrument?! There are actually some people in our band who have been messing with other peoples' instruments and stealing instrument parts, and it makes me so mad! Just goes to show that some people don't think about their actions!

Well Suzie,

You paid for the footjoint yourself. You can do what you want.

More than likely those kids didn't buy that instrument. That was probably a car that was given to them too. Next, they will probably be driving the car off road and trashing it too.

To me they are a bunch of nasty spoiled kids who do not respect the nice things that they have.

If you donate flutes to goodwill, you can write them off on your taxes. I will be donating some old flutes that are fixable this year. They just have really bad plating issues, but they are perfectly playable flutes.

I know an underprivileged 5th grader with a lot of potential who would have been ecstatic to play that Gemienhardt!

I think that if these kids were raised to understand the value of things and to have respect for their parents that they wouldn't do such things.
I think that if a student of mine had done some such thing, I would suggest to the parents that the child work to earn the money to reimburse the parent for the cost of the flute.

So... the dirty deed was done at night away from the prying eyes of parents..!!! Personally if I was to flatten my flute I'd get a Steamroller to run over it and flatten it properly. Then I would get it framed and hang it on the wall as an art piece. I'm sure it would look very interesting like that. But I can't afford such extravagance. And anyway, I would hate to destroy any instrument. Someone else could use it. Yes I agree these stupid teenagers have a lot to learn.

<Added>

I had also thought of flattening old prams (buggies?) bicycles, etc. But never found the steamroller to do it with b cause I would have to do it myself. The steamroller owner would not take the risk...! (Insurance and all that...)

<Added>

and, of course, I don't have a license to drive one...

We love our instruments. I believe that in a way, we are in love with them. Any mistreatment (by others), we take as unacceptably aggressive. We suffer for them.

From this point of view, a flute cannot be a simple object, one that can be disposed of when its useful life has elapsed. Even to make an object of art or a simple house decoration piece from an instrument that was once live in our hands can be a difficult decision.

But the truth is that they are objects as any other object, thousands of them are manufactured each year and for many the final end is the waste.

The width of the final corpse (be it hammered, pressed by car tires or steamrolled over or yet some other method to be seen), is not important.

Making fun of its destruction can be fine for those who do not hold them in high respect or esteem, but as is evident in this thread, this cannot be accepted for most people who love music and the tools that make it possible. Or so I think...

<Added>

Re-reading my final conclusion I acknowledge it could be rough on some memebers of the Forum. I wish I could erase the sentence, but it is not possible. I was not thinking in them when I wrote it and I want to apologize once more. Sorry indeed.
(ashamed)

I don't care if it was a silver bracelet, it was worth money and could be fixed. Yes, it struck a cord with me personally because it was a flute and, yes only an object but, the biggest thing that irritated me was that it was irresponsible and something that their parent probably forked over a bit of money for. I mean gees.. I guess I had more of a conscience as I would make myself finish the cream cheese and olive sandwiches that my mom made me for school lunches even when I HATED them! I knew she took the time to make up my lunches for me and didn't have the heart to throw it away like me sister used to. lol!

As for the flute lamp deal I used to feel the same way as Suzie until I came across a piece of junk Chinese made Venus that I would never let anyone play on! Those cheap Chinese flutes are not even playable or worth it many times.

Again, to somewhat restate my beliefs on this issue.
Disregarding that it is a flute at all.
This object is being functionally destroyed.
There are two questions that come to my mind at this point.
1) Whose object is it really? This child most likely didn't purchase it and as a result is subject to whether or not the purchaser (probably a parent) did in fact "give it" to them or simply entrust it to them. Some parents may think that these sort of actions are acceptable. They may then laugh uncontrollably when the next object up the chain to be destroyed is the family vehicle or possibly even the family pet. Obviously, I would not.

2) These children are showing a distinctly affluent mentality of disregard for respect of property. They say in their argument that it's worthless because it's 8 or 9 years old. Their judgment of it's value may be simply biased as a means to support their argument and is more than likely not an accurate assessment of it's value. If a store owner or repair person said that it's worthless then that may be another thing. If the parent was standing by cheering, then of course I'd back off. Age of an instrument isn't as relevant as some child may think.
Here's a flute that is probably three times that age that is a flute of some quality. (As many her know, the 600 series has actually been degraded to a lesser level since this following flute was made):
http://cgi.ebay.com/Yamaha-YFL-681H-Professional-Flute-Solid-Silver-EC-Head_W0QQitemZ220308946063QQihZ012QQcategoryZ10183QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1742.m153.l1262
What if that child was doing this to some dumb old violin for example, that happened to have been made by Guinari or Stradivarius?

3) There are some things that I would not want my students to "learn" by bumping into this video accidentally. This includes a malicious damage, disassembly or destruction of their musical instruments, books, music stands or any other educational equipment.

So, the real question is, what would the parent think about this and actually not what do we think. BUT I think also that in an age where family "conservative values" should be maintained, if a child is doing something bad, being naughty or disrespectful then do we as non-parental adults have an obligation to step in somehow? Do we have the authority to show them that their actions are unacceptable and wrong? This is the way that it used to be around my community when I was growing up. I'd say yes because children learn not just by what we do and say but also by what we don't do and say.

So now that vid has been removed by the user. I wonder if they just didn't like the negative comments or if they came to realize that the comments had a kernel of merit.

Maybe they were afraid that their parents might find out what happened to the flute. Or maybe the parents did find out because one of the other kids told on them.

Did I read that they did this because they didn't get a piccolo part? Or a piccolo or something?

If that was my child, she would definitely not be getting another thing from me.

In our centre there is a sign which states;
"Parents are responsible for their children at all times".
(children refers to under 18's)
I go along with that.