This rant is brought to you by this post on Seattle Mom Blogs. I agree with the post itself, but some of the comments make my ass twitch, so for anyone anti GTA4…
I love when people get all upset about certain games/books/movies and act like society has just taken another step into depravity. I read books about serial killers. I have a collection of such books that take up almost a whole bookcase. I don’t know what draws me to the theme, but it’s what I read. As a matter a fact I read my first one at about age 13. My favorite serial killer books are ones that about killers from around the 1800’s long before the term “serial killer” was coined. They used to blame dime novels for youth committing despicable acts in the past. Yet I know of a ten year-old serial killer from that time (Jesse Pomeroy) that never read one (came up in court testimony). Yes, that’s right - child serial killers existed LONG before violent video games.
Violence in humans is not new. Violence is a part of human nature (don’t shake your head, it is, just look at our history). Some of us are more violent than others. Repress it, ignore it, or try to hide it – it ain’t going away. Reading books, watching movies, and playing violent video games – for some they are outlets for stress, entertainment, or a socially acceptable intake/outlet for our violent nature. I’d personally rather do any of the three than go to a public hanging or war. So untwist the puritan panties and just accept Grand Theft Auto IV has been released for public consumption.
Don’t try to tell me that I’m allowing my kid to see or know too much too soon for conservative sensibilities. I’ll raise mine and you raise yours. The neighbor or neighbor’s children playing a video game isn’t going to affect other lives anymore than gays being allowed to marry will affect heterosexual marriages. It’s not going to cause normal people to behave in antisocial ways. Nor does it make violent crimes seem acceptable. Even if books and movies are based on real life there is a huge difference between those and committing/experiencing real life violent crimes (Mostly the smells - If we had scratch and sniff TV I’d be right there with you. Some smells are just too foul). I don’t care how true to life Hollywood makes their movies or how much worse video games seem with their interactive format, the only people that try what they see in real life are ether not mature enough to view these things without supervision (hence ratings for the parental heads up) or they’re simply touched in the head and it wouldn’t have taken much for them to make the antisocial leap. Either way despite the frequency in which we hear about crimes on the news it’s not on the rise.
We were a much more violent society in the past than we are now the difference is that we have 24hr coverage of every little thing that happens, which makes it seem so much more prolific. Really if you want to assign some blame for the perpetuating of violent crime – I would blame the overcrowding of jails with petty drug offenses and releasing actual violent criminals back into society. Rapists and murderers should NEVER be released back into society, and yes, I’m one of those whack-jobs that thinks drugs should be legalized (not just marijuana).
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May 7th, 2008 at 7:46pm
Erica, thanks for your support of my post. I was starting to think the anti-video-games parents were getting ready to lynch me.
May 7th, 2008 at 9:39pm
Of course! Thanks for the controversial topic. I love me a good rant and I haven’t exercised my rantyness in a while.
Don’t worry the anti-video-gamers won’t lynch you. They’re against any kind of violence, but if they do maybe it’ll be shown on TV, turned into a video game, and I’ll read about it in the paper. 
May 8th, 2008 at 10:30am
You really need to give a lot more credit to the way the media shapes the ideals of our society.
Stephanies latest blog post… 1
May 8th, 2008 at 11:46am
I’m saying it doesn’t desensitize people to the point of becoming violent criminals because there is a big difference between what’s on the screen and actually committing a violent crime.
I never said media doesn’t open our eyes to new things. I do believe that the media reflects current society more than it directs it.
For a long time TV networks were very squeamish about showing a man and woman portraying a married couple to share a bed on screen. It took a long time before a more realistic view was portrayed regularly. And I don’t think married couples of the time suddenly slept in twin beds on opposite sides of the room just because it was shown that way on TV.
Star Trek was the first to show an interracial kiss in the US and at that time race/discrimination was in the forefront of the news. (1968) Interracial marriages were very rare at the time, but you can’t tell me that show suddenly made it acceptable. It happened at a time when society was already making the change.
May 8th, 2008 at 12:18pm
I agree with you, Erica. The conservatives love to blame Hollywood and the “liberal media” for many of society’s problems, but that isn’t anything new at all. In college a professor read a rant about “kids today” following popular culture and not listening to their parents-it was from Ancient Greece.
The media is our mirror more than anything. Oh, and you know that some stations and the network responsible for showing that Star Trek episode got hate mail for showing that kiss-something about the downfall of society…
May 8th, 2008 at 4:52pm
Agi - haha liberal media indeed. If the media were liberal reporters would ask Dubya some real questions and not lob him softballs all the time.
I would love to read that rant. That would be awesome. If you have a book/title let me know.
Oh I bet they got hate mail! They probably lost a few viewers too, but probably picked up a bunch more.
May 8th, 2008 at 9:55pm
I found in Bartleby’s Quotations:
AUTHOR: Socrates (469–399 B.C.)
QUOTATION: The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.
BUT-apparently it isn’t authentic, according to the notes. It is, however, the one I remember from college. In any case, in the class where this was read, we also read about rants against swing dancing, rock and roll and jazz as all bringing about the decline of morality. Then there were the battles against TV, comic books, dime store novels…it’s always SOMETHING causing our kids to go into moral decline.
May 12th, 2008 at 11:55pm
Agi - Damn! Too bad it isn’t authentic. It would be awesome to be able to trace “the moral decline” to Ancient Greece.
I wonder why those that dread “the moral decline” always seem to cite the 1950’s for their comparison - Have you ever noticed that? I’ll have to look into it and write a post about the theory(s) I come up with.
May 13th, 2008 at 10:50am
I have always wondered that too.My theory is that for white, middle class people, it was a time of plenty and people had more time to constuct what they thought of as the “perfect society”. Moms stayed home because they could, houses cost less than most cars do today, work was plentiful, goods were plentiful, and patriotism was at an all-time high. Life was good-if you were white and middle class.
Proof was all around-in the new media of TV, in the blockbuster movies of the day, in magazines filled with glossy color photos, etc. Department stores were taking off even in smaller towns and everyone could look just like everyone else.
Lower income people and those of color of course, DIDN’T have it all that good, women often worked outside the home, there were latchkey kids all along, or they were out doing paper routes and laundry to help make ends meet. They weren’t so concerned with keeping up with the Joneses and the middle class fantasy of the perfect life.
The Ozzie and Harriet world never really did exist much beyond a few lucky people. I think that those who hark back to it tend to forget that. There have ALWAYS been uwed parents, kids who don’t follow strict moral codes and so on. Just because it wasn’t in the media of the day doesn’t make it cease to exist.
The Evil Media of today is simply more reflective of whats always been there. And we as a whole are more willing to refuse to be put in a box of behavior.
“The Fifties” is when my parents came of age (boy, that dates ME I guess!). My mom came from an upper-class Ozzie and Harriet life; my dad did not. Guess which one of them had the most trouble with the social revolutions of the 60’s and 70’s? She came around though, thank goodness.
May 20th, 2008 at 9:03am
I think it may have connections to The Red Scare. As in, it was the TV industries way of appeasing the government by doing some self control. I haven’t fleshed out that theory, but I’ll write a post about it when I come up with something more substantial.