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Respected members of the community:
In the past few decades, our American society has seen a disturbing and potentially catastrophic trend. This trend undermines the ethical and moral fabric of any respectable community, and even threatens the very existence of the United States. Sadly, it has become so ingrained into our lives that we all contribute to its prevalence?regardless of our intent. This deadly trend, one which casts a sickly pall over the future of humanity, is the destruction of individual responsibility and of rational concepts of fairness for the sake of personal gain or preservation.
By this, I mean that countless opportunistic or misguided souls have sought or are seeking a means to circumvent the efficient and beneficial processes of justice and of commerce by denying their own responsibility for their actions, by confusing cause with effect in order to achieve a poorly planned social renovation, and/or by seeking scapegoats for blame that belongs to everyone?not just the selected few. I shall attempt to explain each of my assertions. As I do so, please take note of anything that seems familiar.
When someone commits a crime, there are doubtless myriad contributing factors. One must consider the perpetrator?s mental status, their environment, the nature of the crime, the victim?s relation to the perpetrator, etc. Recently, however, the responsibility for the illegal acts has been avoided by the sketchy and poorly justified means of the temporary insanity defense, the assertion of provocation, and (most notably, in this context) the assertion that someone or something forced or enticed them to commit the crime. The entertainment industry has become a popular target for such unscrupulous efforts at avoiding responsibility. However, it should be noted that, though millions are exposed to these stimuli at similar or even more severe degrees than these criminals, only a scant few take action based on these alleged ?motivators.? If video games, movies and music cause violence, then why have just the very disturbed or unstable responded to these sirens? calls?
At the behest of the most misguided and deceptive prophets of doom, several ?experts? denounce the overwhelming presence of violence and vice in entertainment as the causes of these problems in real life. However, if one thinks on this long enough, the absurdity of the proclamation is clear. To say that a permeating atmosphere of violence in media is corrupting an otherwise pure and decent society is like saying that your shadow creates you, or that a fire creates a match. Human society has, since the dawn of history, been pervaded by an element of violence ? an inclination to shun the conventions of polite society in favor of indulgence of the darker aspects of human behavior. This shadow in the heart of mankind cannot be banished by denying its existence. Violence, lascivious behavior, hatred, cruelty?these things are present in the media because they are present in humanity. Their presence there is the result of our desire for such things, not the cause of such desires.
Yet despite the logical progression of cause and effect, of action and responsibility, prominent demagogues have, time and again, sought to demonize an industry simply for giving us what we seek. Perhaps they think that by taking such a publicly recognizable, brave and ?honorable? stance against the big bad wolf, they can convince people to follow them to whatever delusion of grandeur has motivated them. Perhaps they think that, by taking an abstract enemy and giving it physical embodiment, they can somehow defeat these negative aspects of the psyche?or at least deny their own involvement and contribution. Or perhaps they just want to make money from an easy target that seems to have plenty of it. Regardless of their motivation, these poor, deluded souls are tearing down the very fabric of right and wrong. Much more of this, and morals and ethical concerns will no longer make any sense to the general public. They will have been told that up is down, left is right and backward is forward so often that they will be nothing more than bemused cattle.
Smoke and mirrors aside, it is readily apparent where responsibility lies, so long as one uses common sense and rational logic. Suing a handgun manufacturer for a fatal shooting makes no more sense than suing a car manufacturer for a vehicular homicide. Suing a fast food chain or cigarette company for health problems makes no more sense than suing the sun for causing skin cancer. And suing the producer or distributor of violent or lewd movies, music or videogames for causing criminal behavior makes no more sense than suing the companies that print the Bible ? or even the church itself ? for inciting two millennia of incest, genocide, and treachery (it?s all in there?read it for yourself).
In the past few decades, our American society has seen a disturbing and potentially catastrophic trend. This trend undermines the ethical and moral fabric of any respectable community, and even threatens the very existence of the United States. Sadly, it has become so ingrained into our lives that we all contribute to its prevalence?regardless of our intent. This deadly trend, one which casts a sickly pall over the future of humanity, is the destruction of individual responsibility and of rational concepts of fairness for the sake of personal gain or preservation.
By this, I mean that countless opportunistic or misguided souls have sought or are seeking a means to circumvent the efficient and beneficial processes of justice and of commerce by denying their own responsibility for their actions, by confusing cause with effect in order to achieve a poorly planned social renovation, and/or by seeking scapegoats for blame that belongs to everyone?not just the selected few. I shall attempt to explain each of my assertions. As I do so, please take note of anything that seems familiar.
When someone commits a crime, there are doubtless myriad contributing factors. One must consider the perpetrator?s mental status, their environment, the nature of the crime, the victim?s relation to the perpetrator, etc. Recently, however, the responsibility for the illegal acts has been avoided by the sketchy and poorly justified means of the temporary insanity defense, the assertion of provocation, and (most notably, in this context) the assertion that someone or something forced or enticed them to commit the crime. The entertainment industry has become a popular target for such unscrupulous efforts at avoiding responsibility. However, it should be noted that, though millions are exposed to these stimuli at similar or even more severe degrees than these criminals, only a scant few take action based on these alleged ?motivators.? If video games, movies and music cause violence, then why have just the very disturbed or unstable responded to these sirens? calls?
At the behest of the most misguided and deceptive prophets of doom, several ?experts? denounce the overwhelming presence of violence and vice in entertainment as the causes of these problems in real life. However, if one thinks on this long enough, the absurdity of the proclamation is clear. To say that a permeating atmosphere of violence in media is corrupting an otherwise pure and decent society is like saying that your shadow creates you, or that a fire creates a match. Human society has, since the dawn of history, been pervaded by an element of violence ? an inclination to shun the conventions of polite society in favor of indulgence of the darker aspects of human behavior. This shadow in the heart of mankind cannot be banished by denying its existence. Violence, lascivious behavior, hatred, cruelty?these things are present in the media because they are present in humanity. Their presence there is the result of our desire for such things, not the cause of such desires.
Yet despite the logical progression of cause and effect, of action and responsibility, prominent demagogues have, time and again, sought to demonize an industry simply for giving us what we seek. Perhaps they think that by taking such a publicly recognizable, brave and ?honorable? stance against the big bad wolf, they can convince people to follow them to whatever delusion of grandeur has motivated them. Perhaps they think that, by taking an abstract enemy and giving it physical embodiment, they can somehow defeat these negative aspects of the psyche?or at least deny their own involvement and contribution. Or perhaps they just want to make money from an easy target that seems to have plenty of it. Regardless of their motivation, these poor, deluded souls are tearing down the very fabric of right and wrong. Much more of this, and morals and ethical concerns will no longer make any sense to the general public. They will have been told that up is down, left is right and backward is forward so often that they will be nothing more than bemused cattle.
Smoke and mirrors aside, it is readily apparent where responsibility lies, so long as one uses common sense and rational logic. Suing a handgun manufacturer for a fatal shooting makes no more sense than suing a car manufacturer for a vehicular homicide. Suing a fast food chain or cigarette company for health problems makes no more sense than suing the sun for causing skin cancer. And suing the producer or distributor of violent or lewd movies, music or videogames for causing criminal behavior makes no more sense than suing the companies that print the Bible ? or even the church itself ? for inciting two millennia of incest, genocide, and treachery (it?s all in there?read it for yourself).
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