Spring Break
Violence transcends human race
Andy Anderson
Issue date: 2/19/08 Section: Opinion
Andy Anderson is a junior majoring in secondary education. He can be contacted at opinion@reflector.msstate.edu.
What is the world coming to? It is a very popular and probably overused cliché and yet we only use it in situations that warrant dire sorrow and unrest.
Another school shooting, a suicide bomber in Central Park, a serial rapist strikes again ... what is the world coming to? Are we even asking the proper question? Is it "What is the world coming to?" or "Why have we let it remain the way that it is?"
Experts continue to play the blame game, highlighting television and video games for the amazing acts of violence exerted by our youth. I suppose it is easier to blame "Grand Theft Auto" and "Scarface" for every srolen car and drug-dealing, gun-wheeling criminal rather than providing people with a more adequate explanation. If people are fooled that easily, at least the millions spent on research is worth tax payers dollars. I have a theory of my own.
Violence is not some new innovation of an up-and-coming modern-day renaissance. The world is a violent place and always has been. It is not plausible for cynics to throw the blame on violent video games and movies, because before there was any of that, there was violence.
From the campaigns of Caesar to Bush's conquest of Iraq, violence has endured through the ages. It has survived the test of time due to war, the implementation of law, religious intolerance and political ideology. The world has evolved into a society of difference and most interpret it as a deficit. However, this evolution does not mean the world is more violent today than it was 30 years ago. It simply means that we have continued to allow and accept it as part of our culture.
Vietnam ended the life of more than 58,000 American soldiers, and about 3,900 soldiers have sacrificed their lives in Iraq. These numbers speak for themselves.
Do you think movies and video games could have been blamed as easily then as they are now? Believe it or not, fewer people are killed in war today than 50 years ago. This is understandable, since we are more advanced today and wars are waged with different tactics. There is one thing known for sure: The violence during the Vietnam and Iraq wars has nothing at all to do with violent media.
What is the world coming to? It is a very popular and probably overused cliché and yet we only use it in situations that warrant dire sorrow and unrest.
Another school shooting, a suicide bomber in Central Park, a serial rapist strikes again ... what is the world coming to? Are we even asking the proper question? Is it "What is the world coming to?" or "Why have we let it remain the way that it is?"
Experts continue to play the blame game, highlighting television and video games for the amazing acts of violence exerted by our youth. I suppose it is easier to blame "Grand Theft Auto" and "Scarface" for every srolen car and drug-dealing, gun-wheeling criminal rather than providing people with a more adequate explanation. If people are fooled that easily, at least the millions spent on research is worth tax payers dollars. I have a theory of my own.
Violence is not some new innovation of an up-and-coming modern-day renaissance. The world is a violent place and always has been. It is not plausible for cynics to throw the blame on violent video games and movies, because before there was any of that, there was violence.
From the campaigns of Caesar to Bush's conquest of Iraq, violence has endured through the ages. It has survived the test of time due to war, the implementation of law, religious intolerance and political ideology. The world has evolved into a society of difference and most interpret it as a deficit. However, this evolution does not mean the world is more violent today than it was 30 years ago. It simply means that we have continued to allow and accept it as part of our culture.
Vietnam ended the life of more than 58,000 American soldiers, and about 3,900 soldiers have sacrificed their lives in Iraq. These numbers speak for themselves.
Do you think movies and video games could have been blamed as easily then as they are now? Believe it or not, fewer people are killed in war today than 50 years ago. This is understandable, since we are more advanced today and wars are waged with different tactics. There is one thing known for sure: The violence during the Vietnam and Iraq wars has nothing at all to do with violent media.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Mark O'Neil
posted 2/19/08 @ 10:28 PM CST
1) We are just a violent as the "ancestors" who watched the games in Rome. It is called television and movies. To borrow a line from the movie, "Gladiator", Maximus says "Are you entertained?! Are you not entertained?!" People are so used to watching violence on television now people are getting bored and demand ever increasing violence than before to be "entertained" and even greater spectacles. (Continued…)
Jed Pressgrove
posted 2/20/08 @ 10:45 AM CST
Evolutionists don't "worship" chance or time. They use these two concepts to explain phenomena, however.
Post a Comment