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Spesh
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This is a subject I’ve thought about for awhile now and all I’ve done is mess around in this thread. Time to vent a bit. This is all my personal opinion so I’m not going to bother looking up studies and articles I’ve come across.
Spesh’s GET REAL post:
Much about this bill and what is represents bothers me. While I have no doubt many on here feel that way about other bills(and I have no doubt some feel that way concerning any bill), the goals, practical expectations, and reasons for the bill to exist at all bother me.
Anytime anything happens at all people attempt to deflect the blame onto other parties. Its lead to some fairly hideous resolutions yet we continue to do it. In this case, entertainment takes the fall. “Society” has forever been a convenient scapegoat for those who, in my opinion, cannot take responsibility for their actions and inactions. Is it easier deal with the child you just caught having sex and talk to them about the incident or is it easier to blame MTV for their rap videos and write a letter to a Congressmen you didn’t vote for because you forgot about the election?
History has shown this scapegoat tendency to be false repeatedly over the ages. As I mentioned earlier, The Catcher in the Rye has been blamed for assassination attempts and The Beggar’s Opera was blamed for an increase of crime in England. There are countless other examples. Regardless of how illogical is it to blame a book for an individuals decision to commit crime, the book in question is the one that gets banned. Later, in America at least, we inevitably unban it…only to later ban something similar, thus continuing the cycle. At what point do we stop repeating history? At what point do we stop making the same mistakes over again?
Practically, this bill is absurd. Disturbed Shifty hit the nail on the head. The vast majority of the research on “entertainment leading to violence” has shown that family and friends influence behavior far more than “outside sources”. A child who has engaged and encouraging parent’s functions better then a child with negligent parents. A child who is emotionally stable is able to put things into perspective in ways a child who is unstable cannot. If a child’s parents beat them, then they are much more likely to develop long term issues that could lead to aggression. If a child’s parents neglect them or ignore bad behavior, they are more likely to indulge in negative tendencies.
Logically this restriction doesn’t make any sense either. Because our glorious politicians have seen fit to link the two vastly different subjects, I’ll do the same. Everyone agrees that there are gun owners who are responsible human beings and have no intention of committing any crimes whatsoever. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say most gun owners are responsible. And for that reason we cannot ban weapons because it would harm legal owners who have done nothing wrong. To put forward a ban, or even restriction, on video games suggests that people can’t play them responsible. It suggests that a majority of “responsible gamers” should be punished because of a minority of irresponsible gamers. I’m sure everyone here sees the utter hypocrisy of such a stance, not to mention to idiocy of it.
That point leads directly to, what has been for me at least, the biggest elephant in the room:if we cannot use video games responsible how in the hell can we be trusted to use firearms responsible?
Games have evolved. I recall a decade ago I was of the opinion that games were not art. They had done little to earn that description. Granted, even 10 or 15 years ago various companies made interesting visual depictions, but the games didn’t evoke any sort of emotional response other than that of competitiveness. They didn’t require deep thought or introspection, they hardly spoke to our philosophical ponderings. Largely, plot was used only as a justification for lining up crowds of enemies to slaughter.
Times have changed. While there is no shortage of titles that can be described as I previously stated, more and more games are having to develop engaging stories, if only to compete with their competition. Even heavy hitters such as the Halo series, hardly known for its story writing, adapted to the new demand. As a teenager I was forced to volunteer(the irony of that statement isn’t lost upon me) at a Alzheimer’s clinic. Recently while playing Halo 4, I was startled by how utterly familiar one of the characters slide towards insanity sounded. Difficulty completing sentences, violent outbursts, inconsolable depression, floods of apologizes, inability to understand where they were….it was remarkably moving and, as I found my time working with the Alzheimer’s victims terrifying, briefly alarming. I could go on with other examples, such as how exceptional Max Payne 2’s noir love story was or how fascinating it was to watch Assassin’s Creed 3’s uncompromising character in a complex time period, but the point remains that games have in fact evolved into a form of art. Despite being a year of “AAA” titles, games with little to no combat like Journey or The Walking Dead won recognition and acclaim in the various “game of the year” awards.
How is this different then the “attack” against the second amendment? While cases and legislation rise up from time to time, and they almost always include the previous arguments concerning the faults and indecencies of our current society, we largely have a consensus on the first amendment and the reasoning is fairly obvious and sound. Almost everything is allowed, no child porn. We have yet to reach such a consensus concerning the second amendment. What exactly does the language allow and not allow? What were the founders intent? Is it still valid because muskets are obsolete and technology has advances in ways they couldn’t have foreseen? What constitutes self-defense? Etc, etc, etc.
You can ask 10 different people those 4 questions and, as the Trayvon Martin case has shown us, get 24 different answers. The fact of the matter is, most people already agree there are bans on the second amendment. And they wouldn’t agree to lift those bans if they thought about it. You have the right to protect yourself, but you do not have the right to use explosives. You can defend your property, but you cannot use surface to air weaponry. You can defend your family, but you cannot unleash biological agents. Those who want to ban assault rifles and other dangerous weaponry simply want to move the bar slightly more to the left. You can still defend yourself, your property, your family, and we can all continue to live up to the second amendment. Hardly the knife through lady liberties pet bald eagle that many make it out to be.
Only the Alex Jones types, what I personally consider “the fringe”, see the situation differently. They don’t simply want the ability to defend themselves from criminals. They see the situation as a full blown arms race against inevitably government takeover. They see themselves as the last vanguard of liberty. And not only are those of us who aren’t with them against them, we must also have a seething hatred of freedom. The logic behind this type of personality amuses me for many reasons, but 2 come to the top. 1) I imagine they would endeavor to save children when fighting against the government. So: in order to be prepared to protect innocent children in the future, they must keep their weapons at the ready while allowing innocent children to die in the present. 2) They see themselves in an arms race against a nuclear superpower. Good luck with that.
Now that I’m at the end of it, this post was longer then I intended(founder-style). In the end, all of what I wrote is irrelevant. The Supreme Court has already ruled on a video game restriction and found it unconstitutional. With a firm 7-2 previous ruling, I feel confident they won’t reverse course anytime soon. Suck it congress and a special middle finger to Obama for reopening this door.
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