hardheadjarhead said:
Grossman is somewhat controversial...and I have to confess I have some problems with some of his premises.
His attitude on video games is unfounded, and panders to a prudish and paranoid segment of our culture that runs across the liberal and conservative spectrum.
We follow a tendency to blame fix. Video games lead to violence, pornography leads to rape, marijuana leads to harder drugs...all premised incorrectly and with faulty data to support it. It leads to a growing mythology and a "Chicken Little" mentality.
Of course, as violent crime is in the decline, it is evident that video games, in and of themselves, likely don't lead the average child to a life of crime. I do believe, however, that those with a predisposition to violence are likely further encouraged and desensitized by ultra-violent media. I don't support this, however, as a reason to ban that material, anymore than I blame guns for violence. I believe that every person is, ultimatley, responsible for his actions.
As for marijuana leading to harder drugs, it is clear that those with a predisposition to chemical dependency, tend to branch out their dependency. In that sense, marijuana does lead to harder drugs. Very few people suddenly just start doing harder drugs. They begin with marijuana, that's why they call it a gateway drug.
Of course, that doesn't mean that marijuana automatically causes everyone to do cocaine. However, the very lifestyle itself increases contact with, the likelyhood of use, of other drugs.
hardheadjarhead said:
Video games have increased in popularity over the last decade, yet violent crime decreased during that time according to the Department of Justice.
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/cv2.htm
We all know kids who have played violent games. Somehow the vast majority of them don't turn into raging sociopaths.
Just as I said. However, the reason that violence is dropping, is that we are increasingly incarcerated the said sociopaths...the ones, I might, most likely affected by violent media. Again, however, not justification for banning the media. I find incarceration works subtably.
hardheadjarhead said:
This process is nothing new. In the 19th century novels were supposed to have corrupted young women. In the 1920's people fretted about the influence of "moving pictures" on the morals of our youth. In the fifties it was rock music (Elvis in particular), and--I'm not making this up--comic books featuring Superman and Batman. Fringe elements today lambast Harry Potter for "teaching witchcraft," and of course more mainstream critics attack video games.
Yes, but that presumes that everything we believe is ultimately wrong. Asbestos causes lung cancer, high fat diets result in heart disease, some things are actually true. They aren't all false because we disagree with them originally.
It is a faulty assumption to believe that simply because it was believed that Batman and Superman would cause behavior problems, and they didn't, then any such beliefs about anything else are of necessecity wrong.
It is possible to assume that, while Superman and Batman and comic books might not influence aberrant behavior, that Natural Born Killers and Grand Theft Auto might. Each should be examined seperately, based on their own merits.
hardheadjarhead said:
There is, interestingly, an occasional splitting of hairs. I know Evangelicals who will allow their children to play military based "first person shooters," but won't let them play "Doom." If it is has a semi-patriotic and pro-military theme, apparently, it causes no harm to the child. If it involves shooting fantastical demons with the occasional earthy invective, then it is evil. "SOCOM" is okay...but don't let your child play "Tomb Raider." Lara Croft is far too scantily clad and might arouse unholy passions in a tender soul.
That's not really it. That has as much to do with the cultural heritage of violence in this country as even religious belief. We find it easier to identify with certain types of violence than other types of violence. We become somewhat uncomfortable, however, when we begin mixing violence with sex. Puritanical? Maybe, but it could also be that we find mixing the two rather dangerous to the psyche. Who knows.
At any rate, I find the odd violent video game here and there pleasureable myself. I've been playing them for years, along with being a fan of other violent media. Do I want the government to ban them? Absolutely not. I'm an adult, and I should have access to them if I want. Same with pornography. Does that mean I want my children exposed to it? Also, absolutely not.
Have violent video games and other media warped me? Maybe, maybe not. I'll allow you to be the judge.
