The inconsistancy in calls for bans has bothered me for a long time. After all, when Tipper Gore was screaming for ratings labels for rock albums, she never suggested doing anything about folk music or opera, both of which are just as perverse, perverted, and violent as anything you'll find in rock. After all, Wagner's Ring Cycle includes: extreme violence, murder, theft, chicanery, incest, adultery, fornication, dark magic, and all manner of vice but people would rather their fifteen-year-olds listened to that than the Stones or a rap album, which, ironically, often contain less specific perversion. Maybe singing about these things in German is what makes it respectable.
And once upon a time I knew a girl who decided she was only ever going to listen to 'uplifting' music for the rest of her life and in her mind that meant Irish folk music exclusively. And so it was that she wandered around humming this rather pretty little tune all the time. When I listened to the actual song and its lyrics, it was all about a couple Irishmen wandering the streets on Christmas morning when a soldier comes up and offers them a chance to be all they can be in the royal army...so they beat the shit out of the soldier and his little drummer boy all on a Christmas morning. Yeah. Really uplifting, that.
My one suggestion would be taking a slightly longer break between playing 200mph chase games and getting in an actual car. I can see how the difference would be slightly disorienting for a while. OTOH, I find that playing my Sims quite violently on ocassion helps me keep my agression and frustration in check. I build death boxes and fill them with public figures I detest or representations of people who are making my life miserable and kill them horribly. And cackle. And then I turn off the computer and go make a lovely dinner for my beloved and my brother, feeling curiously refreshed.
We all need a vent now and again. I honestly don't think playing video games makes anyone do anything. They may reinforce negative ideas in some, but those negative ideas had to be there in the first place.
I call it Helter Skelter Syndrome. The Beatles song is more or less nonsense. Some people find it irritating, others think it's great party music. I find it really useful when I'm pissed at the world and want to vent a bit, and then I put it on and howl along at the top of my lungs...and Charles Manson decided it was an order from The Beatles to send his minions out to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders. Kill a pregnant woman is not a line in the song. There's nothing in it about doing anything violent. There just happened to be a phrase that Manson had already imbued with perverse meaning in his own fevered brain.
By the same token, I think people who blame games or movies for their own anti-social actions are copping out, as are those who try to blame the mass media for the behavior of others. I'm not saying there's no influence; more that the influence is molded and tempered by what is already in your brain and what lessons have been reinforced by your personal experiences.
One of my favorite songs is Jethro Tull's Aqualung, which is about a child molester. And yet, I have never once attempted to molest a child, nor would I accept that behavior from someone else if I were aware of it. I just like the tune.
And my Sims live their lives of perversity and violence without my ever laying a hand in anger on anyone or attempting to seduce a neighbor. I'm just not that kind of gal.
no subject
And once upon a time I knew a girl who decided she was only ever going to listen to 'uplifting' music for the rest of her life and in her mind that meant Irish folk music exclusively. And so it was that she wandered around humming this rather pretty little tune all the time. When I listened to the actual song and its lyrics, it was all about a couple Irishmen wandering the streets on Christmas morning when a soldier comes up and offers them a chance to be all they can be in the royal army...so they beat the shit out of the soldier and his little drummer boy all on a Christmas morning. Yeah. Really uplifting, that.
My one suggestion would be taking a slightly longer break between playing 200mph chase games and getting in an actual car. I can see how the difference would be slightly disorienting for a while. OTOH, I find that playing my Sims quite violently on ocassion helps me keep my agression and frustration in check. I build death boxes and fill them with public figures I detest or representations of people who are making my life miserable and kill them horribly. And cackle. And then I turn off the computer and go make a lovely dinner for my beloved and my brother, feeling curiously refreshed.
We all need a vent now and again. I honestly don't think playing video games makes anyone do anything. They may reinforce negative ideas in some, but those negative ideas had to be there in the first place.
I call it Helter Skelter Syndrome. The Beatles song is more or less nonsense. Some people find it irritating, others think it's great party music. I find it really useful when I'm pissed at the world and want to vent a bit, and then I put it on and howl along at the top of my lungs...and Charles Manson decided it was an order from The Beatles to send his minions out to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders. Kill a pregnant woman is not a line in the song. There's nothing in it about doing anything violent. There just happened to be a phrase that Manson had already imbued with perverse meaning in his own fevered brain.
By the same token, I think people who blame games or movies for their own anti-social actions are copping out, as are those who try to blame the mass media for the behavior of others. I'm not saying there's no influence; more that the influence is molded and tempered by what is already in your brain and what lessons have been reinforced by your personal experiences.
One of my favorite songs is Jethro Tull's Aqualung, which is about a child molester. And yet, I have never once attempted to molest a child, nor would I accept that behavior from someone else if I were aware of it. I just like the tune.
And my Sims live their lives of perversity and violence without my ever laying a hand in anger on anyone or attempting to seduce a neighbor. I'm just not that kind of gal.