woensdag 5 september 2007
Amoklauf
I'm sure by now everyone knows of the shit that went down here in Germany a week and a half ago. Some kid (Jesus, I just called a 19 year-old a kid) went psycho and shot up his school. He was a well-trained marksman--a member of a gun club--and he specifically went after teachers, killing several of them execution style directly in front of their classes--classes with kids as young as ten. A terrible, shocking event.And almost immediately, it was revealed that the guy played games. Violent games. And he listened to violent music (Slipknot? Never heard of them...) where the band members wear masks, just like he did when he went on his killing spree. The guy also liked violent movies.You know where this is all going, of course. Many politicians immediately jumped on the idea of banning all this crap, since obviously it is a giant contributing factor to, if not the source of, this guy's psycho tendancies. A standard politician's reaction that I wouldn't really worry much about if this were the U.S. But it's not. It's Germany, where violence is looked at in the same way that sex is often looked at in the U.S. In the past, some games have had to change the color of blood from red to green and/or people into zombies, before the game could be released, and a lot of games are restricted to buyers over 18 (note: I actually have no problem with this, since parents can buy a kid a game if they feel it's okay for the kid).I guess my problem with all this is not the reactions so much as the fact that it shows that people are the same here as in other places. They want a quick solution for things that they don't understand, and they look for easy targets to effect such a solution. The German media has certainly been more subdued than its U.S. counterpart was after Columbine--it would be hard not to be--but there has still been plenty of talk about "Gewaltvideos" and their potentially terrible efffects on kids. It's just a little depressing. I don't have and have never had any magical notion that Germany is better than the U.S. Far from it, really. But in some social areas this country is in what I consider to be a better place, and I had hoped that this would be one of those areas.
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This shit is really ridiculous (and see, I hadn't heard about this... just shows how closed off the US is from the rest of the world). I wish I still had the link, but I read this study that showed that violent crimes among teens has actually dropped significantly since the mid-80's and early 90's which is when violent games and movies really started proliferating the market (this was a US based study). I love how nobody ever wants to take any responsibility for their fucking demons (kids) and blame everything on anything but themselves even when the facts prove otherwise.BAH! I hate people!
I do think it's a natural reaction to look around for an easy explanation when something like this happens. I mean, when there is a terrible occurrence of this magnitude, people, flawed as we are, need to find something to blame, some point onto which we can focus our confusion and rage because nothing of this nature should occur in our normal world. It doesn't make sense, right?Of course the argument of music and of video games being a contributing factor seems silly. I mean, from a scientific standpoint look at your variables. There are millions and millions of kids who play violent video games and listen to angry music. (Slipknot = Gwar with less talent and more non-comic violence) A handful of them do violent things. It's not exactly good science to say that the music and games lead to kids doing violent things. I think it comes down to what Chris Rock said: "What ever happened to crazy?" Regardless of what outside input their might have been, it takes a certain amount of instability to execute an act like this. Nobody plays Diablo then decides their going to go fucking stab somebody on the street. Not unless they're fucked up to begin with. And is that the fault of the video game makers? Or should parents or doctors realize the instability in the children and therefore shelter them from things that normal kids don't have such a reaction to? I don't know.In some ways, I think that instantly blaming parents is the same as instantly blaming various sources of violent entertainment. Sure, the one Columbine kid's parents probably shouldn't have allowed him to make pipe bombs, and steal guns from the cabinet and all that shit, granted. But, there's still a step in there that doesn't have anything to do with parenting. Now, if parents never teach their children the difference between right and wrong, that might be different, but there is some shit you should just learn living in a civilized world...and those kids weren't cut out to live in it. All I'm trying to say is that I think, in some cases, you could have perfectly fine parents who still turn out a fucked up kid. I think in this particular instance the biggest influence, outside of the kid being nuts, was Columbine. Columbine brought the idea of school shootings and violence to a level previously unattained, and got tons and tons of attention...some of which I'm sure was coming from Germany. I'm not saying that Columbine made this kid shoot his teachers, but I'm saying that it might have planted the idea in his head that it could be done. It's like a few years back when the news did an expose on Rufies (sp?) that date rape drug, and how it was being used to such an end, and in the following months the use of the drug tripled or something like that. Again, this is an issue for which there is no real solution. News needs to be reported, right? I got off track somewhere. Anyway, yeah, obviously they're going to point the finger at the immediate influences, and most people will blame is parents who could be perfectly lovely people. I mean, you want to let your kids play games they like and listen to music they like, you know? Parents are only human also - and unless a kid displays extremely strong signs that he is capable of violence, I'm not sure that most parents would even think that their child would be capable of such a thing. Why would they?Hopefully the pressure on the videogames will die down a bit. I don't know how things work in Germany, but I think over here that Nintendo, Sony, etc., some of the bigger game companies should just start making large campaign contributions, and we'll see a little of the heat go away. Also, if I ever decide to go on a homicidal rampage, my suicide note will be simple. "I want to thank Fred Durst for showing me the light. It's only because of him that I was able to see that violence against others was okay - and I hope that others will learn the same thing from his teachings." Oh yeah, if I'm going down, I'm taking Fred with me.
It's like Dennis Miller says regarding another controversy that shows this shit has been going on forever:"If your kid is capable of being pushed over the edge by anything fucking Gene Simmons has to say then something was going to get this kid eventually."Or if your kid is listening to and enjoying Slipknot it probably appeals to something in his warped mind of warping his mind. It used to be Ozzy that got accused of that shit and I just read that he attended a luncheon at the white house...shit is there a hard metal band that hasn't been accused of being responsible for at least one rape/murder/suicide??Interesting about the rufies--Richard Gere was just talking about how a lot of people took American Gigolo to be like a how-to movie. The Germans don't have the death penalty do they? The kid as I understand killed himself at the end--it's too bad as I would be interested in what revelations he might have had over time.It's interesting though that the French with Le Pen and now the Germans with this are showing some very 'American' behaviour. Next thing you know they'll start sending lots of lawyers, guns and money to Israel.
"A bill introduced in Congress last week would make it a federal crime to sell or rent violent video games to minors," and it "would apply to games that feature decapitation, amputation, killing of humans with lethal weapons or through hand-to-hand combat, rape, car-jackings, aggravated assault and other violent felonies."..."I'm a parent and grandparent, and I've had enough of the violence we're experiencing among our youth," Baca says in a statement announcing bill. "We saw it at Columbine High School, and we saw it last week in Germany." ...Baca cites statistics indicating that 92 percent of American children between the ages of 2 and 17 play video games. He says that previous studies have shown that children can be made to identify with the "digital criminals" in video games. "I've had enough of the violence we're experiencing among our youth," Baca says. "When kids play video games, they assume the identity of the characters in the games. ... Do you really want your kids assuming the role of a mass murderer or car jacker when you are away at work?"
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