- Joined
- Jun 18, 2007
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Here's a rant I did on a local Facebook post asking if video games are to blame for violence in our society:
I wonder which video games Genghis Khan and Vlad Tepes III were playing back in the day- maybe "Grand Theft Auto: Mongolia" and "Call of Duty: Walachia at War"?
My point is that we, as a species need to stop shifting blame and perpetuating the trope of the scapegoat to gloss over the fact that humanity's only distinction from primal and "violent" animals is the ability to walk, and talk. Since the dawn of time all living things on this planet have used some form of violence in order to survive long enough to procreate- whether that takes on the form of a lion chasing down and eating a zebra, or a bacteria feeding on another bacteria, that is simply the way of this world at a very micro level, and is how we are here right now.
That fact in and of itself should be enough for anyone to realize the stupidity in "blaming video games/music/tv", but then when you examine humanity and its lust for power (Genghis Khan, Dracul, Caesar, Hitler, Napoleon, The Crusaders and Conquistadors, etc, etc, etc), the argument becomes simply ludicrous. We are in a new era of humanity, where we live in nice, big, comfy houses, have "social lives"(instead of spending our entire lives simply trying to find enough to eat so that we may live long enough to procreate and ensure the survival of our species). We have "ethics" and "morals" and we like to fool ourselves into thinking we live in a sanitized, sterilized world, and anything that threatens that lie must be blamed on some external force (video games, music, etc).
SURELY it cannot be that we, these "civilized", "intelligent", "modern" species on the top of the food chain can't still be primal enough to still naturally have the violent tendencies, the lust for power, the lust for domination, and the lust for control that has been in our DNA and kept us alive enough to reach this very moment in time since our inception...no, no, we are far too modern and civilized for that; it MUST be some invading EVIL force that is spellbinding our youth and corrupting their pure little minds...oh, if only we could ban these evil forces, our whole world would be sunshine and rainbows!!!!!!!!!
Give me a break.
Thoughts?
I wonder which video games Genghis Khan and Vlad Tepes III were playing back in the day- maybe "Grand Theft Auto: Mongolia" and "Call of Duty: Walachia at War"?
My point is that we, as a species need to stop shifting blame and perpetuating the trope of the scapegoat to gloss over the fact that humanity's only distinction from primal and "violent" animals is the ability to walk, and talk. Since the dawn of time all living things on this planet have used some form of violence in order to survive long enough to procreate- whether that takes on the form of a lion chasing down and eating a zebra, or a bacteria feeding on another bacteria, that is simply the way of this world at a very micro level, and is how we are here right now.
That fact in and of itself should be enough for anyone to realize the stupidity in "blaming video games/music/tv", but then when you examine humanity and its lust for power (Genghis Khan, Dracul, Caesar, Hitler, Napoleon, The Crusaders and Conquistadors, etc, etc, etc), the argument becomes simply ludicrous. We are in a new era of humanity, where we live in nice, big, comfy houses, have "social lives"(instead of spending our entire lives simply trying to find enough to eat so that we may live long enough to procreate and ensure the survival of our species). We have "ethics" and "morals" and we like to fool ourselves into thinking we live in a sanitized, sterilized world, and anything that threatens that lie must be blamed on some external force (video games, music, etc).
SURELY it cannot be that we, these "civilized", "intelligent", "modern" species on the top of the food chain can't still be primal enough to still naturally have the violent tendencies, the lust for power, the lust for domination, and the lust for control that has been in our DNA and kept us alive enough to reach this very moment in time since our inception...no, no, we are far too modern and civilized for that; it MUST be some invading EVIL force that is spellbinding our youth and corrupting their pure little minds...oh, if only we could ban these evil forces, our whole world would be sunshine and rainbows!!!!!!!!!
Give me a break.
Thoughts?
