Then Columbine happened. The shooters were huge video game fans (and geeks). Especially of the game Doom by id software - the precursor of Quake. They had web pages dedicated to it and the news jumped all over this!
Which was completely blown out of proportion by certain media outlets.
Literally EVERY boy at that age had played these games at some point. They were also so called goths, but most goths that I know are the most mellow and peaceful people you will find. Again taken out of context and blown out of proportion by certain media outlets.
I dont agree with everything Michael Moore says or does, but IIRC, he at least got that right in "bowling for colombine". Pretty much everybody else did not.
When I was a boy (cough, hack) you could still buy toy pistols, and it was great fun to play cops'n'robbers or cowboys'n'indians.
And we loved it.
Most parents didn't worry about the political correctness of shootin' our fellow human being, in fact it was generally conceded there was a certain moral lesson in role-playing games that clearly distinguished between good and evil. My own father, on the other hand, discouraged shoot-em-up games, because he trained me to treat all guns, including toys, as real, and never to point a gun at anything you don't intend to shoot at and hit reliably.
Now days, of course, it is considered morally reprehensible to allow kids to play with guns, we've greyed out the good and evil, and (I actually approve of this last one) we have more sympathy for Native Americans. And the same people who preach this say it is a criminal act to spank your kids. Personally, I say nothing depicted in a Norman Rockwell painting is evil.
I don't fool around with normal shoot-em-up games. If I want to shoot something, my preferred guns are 0.50-cal BMGs, usually mounted 6-8 at a time on either a P-51 or a P-47, along with bombs and rockets. I don't know if any of you read my story "Rendezvous at Angels Thirty" a couple of years back, but it got pretty good reviews, in part because the ending takes a twist that shows how this sort of game can affect your appreciation of folks who had to do this for real.
"Grand Theft Auto" may be a poor moral teacher, although honestly I'm not sure it is worse than any earlier Tolkeinesque exercise involving theft and violence. But thoughtful simulations can be character-builders.
Then Columbine happened. The shooters were huge video game fans (and geeks). Especially of the game Doom by id software - the precursor of Quake. They had web pages dedicated to it and the news jumped all over this!
Which was completely blown out of proportion by certain media outlets.
Literally EVERY boy at that age had played these games at some point. They were also so called goths, but most goths that I know are the most mellow and peaceful people you will find. Again taken out of context and blown out of proportion by certain media outlets.
I dont agree with everything Michael Moore says or does, but IIRC, he at least got that right in "bowling for colombine". Pretty much everybody else did not.
I count Moore amongst the media blowing it out of proportion though, he named the film he made after the incident and made some good money off it after all.
When I was a boy (cough, hack) you could still buy toy pistols, and it was great fun to play cops'n'robbers or cowboys'n'indians.
And we loved it.
Most parents didn't worry about the political correctness of shootin' our fellow human being, in fact it was generally conceded there was a certain moral lesson in role-playing games that clearly distinguished between good and evil. My own father, on the other hand, discouraged shoot-em-up games, because he trained me to treat all guns, including toys, as real, and never to point a gun at anything you don't intend to shoot at and hit reliably.
Now days, of course, it is considered morally reprehensible to allow kids to play with guns, we've greyed out the good and evil, and (I actually approve of this last one) we have more sympathy for Native Americans. And the same people who preach this say it is a criminal act to spank your kids. Personally, I say nothing depicted in a Norman Rockwell painting is evil.
Totally agree. I had more toy guns than most kids. I have never been in a fight, never hurt anybody, never commited a crime...
The political correctness and the pressure on the parents these days to be politically correct with their kids is ridiculos and stupid and counter productive.
If you were to believe the establishement then, 50% of the kids growing up in the eighties would have died before they turned 18 and the rest would have turned into murderous lunatics....
I count Moore amongst the media blowing it out of proportion though, he named the film he made after the incident and made some good money off it after all.
Oh, I never said that I agreed with him on all points, or that I thought the documentary was particularily great.
My mother decided she wouldn't buy toy guns for her children. What she learned from this experiment is that little boys have active imaginations and will use sticks, fingers, pretty much anything to stand in for a real toy gun. She eventually decided we might as well learn to handle the real (toy) thing. We eventually handled the real thing under controlled conditions in Boy Scouts anyway.
Skipjack wrote:They were also so called goths, but most goths that I know are the most mellow and peaceful people you will find.
Well, the Goths did sack Rome, you know.
From what I recall the shooters were called Goths because they listened to Marilyn Manson. Trouble is, they didn't even listen to Marilyn Manson, let alone a real Goth band.
Temperature, density, confinement time: pick any two.
re: Inmates and pron - A local county is considering letting the jailed inmates read it. This will probably not go over well in Bible-belt-not-the-buckle-but-you-can-see-it-from-here South Carolina.
