As the number and the intensity of societal violence increases year after year, some idiot will no doubt blame firearms. Sadly, they are wrong. Oh, but if it just were that easy! Just take everyone’s guns away, and no more violence!
If you believe that, then you must also believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and that the Kardashians are talented, and you receive political guidance from movie stars.
Who is to blame? We are.
We have created an extremely violent society. Over the last fifty years we have turned America into the largest creator and consumer of pure violence, for violence sake.
1) Our rap music is filled with violence. Don’t believe me? Google lyrics to the following:
- No Tears – Scarface
- X is Coming For You – DMX
- The Day The N***az Took Over – Dr. Dr
Warning, don’t use your work computer to look up these lyrics as you could get fired for viewing such inhuman filth.
The fact is much of urban music is dedicated to pure senseless violence. Played at full blast so the images and ideas can be tattooed into your brain.
Oh, don’t even try to watch the violent music videos that come with them.
2) Movies. Just about any movie these days, especially the gangsta and horror ones, show extensive realistic blood and guts. From James Bond to Mission Impossible realistic violence abounds.
3) Television. Yes, the old TV. Even the three big networks are to blame, as almost the entire airwaves are taken up with violent oriented police or crime shows. Do we really need that many shows dedicated toward violence?Move to cable and you will see such gore to make one ill. Assuming you have not already been made numb to those images.
4) Sports. Back 50 years ago even American football was not as violent as the sport is today. Case in point, the New Orleans Saints being accused of a monetary bounty system for purposely injuring players on other teams. Not making good plays and winning the game, but deliberate physical assaults. Career ending hits.
Basketball, Hockey and oh yeah, boxing, kick boxing and bare fist fighting, you name it, there are all sorts of pure violence in this entire industry. Let’s not leave out the fake for show wrestling TV shows.
5) Video games. This one is seriously evil. How about some screen shots for you?
Mortal Kombat was one of the first and most popular ultraviolent fighting games featuring “photorealistic” characters, copious amounts of blood, and highly graphic fatalities. Parents were outraged when they saw their children playing a game that allowed them to rip their opponents heads off in a spray of blood.
Modern Warfare 2 included an optional mission called “No Russian” in which players joined Russian terrorists in an airport massacre. Murdering innocent people for fun.
And this one:
RapeLay is a “realistic sexual simulator”Japanese video game where the player takes on the role of a rapist who stalks and rapes girls in a number of explicit situations, with the ultimate goal of making them his sex slaves. The player’s target is a mother and her two daughters.
“Postal,” released in 1997, was one of the first games that gave players the ability to kill innocent bystanders and was one of the first games to focus on kill percentage instead of surviving levels.
And these examples are old games and much, much tamer than anything out today. I got sick to my stomach just writing this.
Our society is interwoven with senseless violence. Our young people are inundated with aggressive violence hitting every one of the five senses.
We have also removed religion and faith from society.
If you want to ban guns go right ahead. But within a few months you will have young people committing mass murder with swords, knives, explosives or rolling pins. Remember that guns are a relatively new invention for human history. There have been massacres happening long before guns were invented.
We need someone to stand up and call for a reformation in American society. A move away from violence to sanity. A move to honesty, decency, and yes, biblical values as expressed in the Ten Commandments among others. Someone like the President of the United States or some other leader that holds the power and the ability to launch a movement in America to reform our society into a sane and healthy one. Good luck with that.
I actually believe that we have already passed the point of no return.
Resource
Some Blogging Guy
Well stated!! Absolutely on the mark!
Clear, concise , correct. At age 68 I have seen the patterns of society and how the pursuit of wealth and ego has allowed Holly weird and sports to infect the younger population. The video games have served to desensitize young males to the actual horror of killing and made it easy. We are paying for this in many ways on a daily basis.
I agree with you for the most part. I agree that our society has gotten more violent but you can’t blame TV, movies and video games fully for this.
When bundy and manson killed, video games and such weren’t as prevalent as they are now. so what made them do it? Who knows, but i say it’s a sick mind.
I also think parents need to be the first line of defense on this. If they see issues with their kids, get them help! I’ve played mortal kombat, call of duty and a bunch of other games. But I’m not out killing people. Everyone is different and some kids do act out when seeing or playing something. Those kids need help and parents need to monitor this.
Depending on your beliefs we are very much beyond the point of no return. I’ve mentioned this on your bog before, our society is to involved in reality shows, entitlements and me first. When more people vote on american idol and x factor than they do for the US president we are in trouble. no one cares anymore. and the ones that do are far and few between and get looked at like they are crazy.
just my 2 cents. take it for what you will.
In the Latter Days…….Right Shall Be Wrong & Wrong Shall Be Right!
Some follow-up thoughts:
Violence in music,video,entertainment, etc does not by themselves cause mass shootings. But if you have someone who is already a sandwich short of a picnic, yes, I believe it can move them across the line. Also, once you remove Faith in some higher power, what is left for people to believe in?
We have also destroyed the family unit with our “If it feels good do it” mentality. The traditional nuclear family is dead. Instead of mom, dad and a couple of kids plus a dog, you have two or three dads, single parents struggling to raise kids while working full time. I deal with college kids and I know the data, families are broken.
Guns. In China during 2010-2011 there were six attacks on school children where a total of 21 children were killed and 90 injured. These uncoordinated mass stabbings, hammer attacks, and cleaver attacks were executed without a single firearm. In fact, yesterday, the same day of the Connecticut shootings, someone injured 22 children in a classroom in China, with a knife.
We do not give speeding tickets to the cars that drivers are in, we blame the individual. So, why place the blame on the tool the madman used?
And why do we have so many legal and illegal guns in society? Because we have a societal culture that is based on violence.
I can’t argue that semi-automatic guns make it easier to kill more and do so more quickly. There are times I also wonder why we have to have such high powered weapons. Then again, since the government has no interest in reducing crime, crime is at historical levels. (Yes, the police will issue reports indicating crime is down, but that is akin to allowing second graders to grade their own homework assignments.)
Let me ask you though, how many times were these mass shootings exercised with illegally obtained guns? More than you would think.
We do need fewer guns in America, but again, we do not want to just ban guns but get to the root of our sick society. Cure the souls of Americans and you will cure the gun problem. Attack the reasons people feel the need or desire to have guns.
President Obama needs to call America together to discuss the causes of our violence. He should demand that all of us focus on the sick obsession we have with gory violence until we offer some road map back to sanity.
Instead, he will blame the cars for speeding.
SBG
As I have said in previous comments, we live in an age of too much information, and most of it put out by the media, and, therefore, incorrect and misleading. The same things happened before the information explosion, we just didn’t hear about them. Believe it or not, some kids I went to school with DID bring guns to school, but just to show off to friends and no one was shot and no one outside of their immediate circle even knew. In fact, I believe that every sane non criminal should be required to carry a gun. The world would be a much more polite courteous place! In Israel, all teachers DO carry guns. Wonder why?
Thanks for the comments Steve. Yes, the “information now” age does make things worse. However, I remember growing up in the 60′s and 70′s and occasionally there was work place violence, domestic issues and so forth. But we did not have people dress up like their video game character and kill people just for the sheer joy of it.
We have removed Faith and God from society so as a result we have let the monster within us, the animal, loose.
My view.
View points from actors starting in a movie with lots of violence.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2012/12/18/samuel-l-jackson-newtown-school-shooting-gun-control-violence-in-movies_n_2321545.html
Someone who is mentally unstable will always be on the edge of doing something crazy.
As for Faith and God being taken away from society I think everyone should be held responsible for their actions and people need morals. I know people who don’t believe in God and they have great morals. i also know people who believe in God and Faith and are the biggest hypocrites and have no morals.
My personal opinion is that some people need God and Faith to keep their sanity but others do not. I have more feelings on the matter but i don’t want to bore you, however i also feel that its wrong for the government and the people who don’t believe in God to take it out of society and complain when someone mentions Faith or God.
“Creative License”? He really said that? Since when is making ultra violent films with realistic and gory violence any kind if “creative”?
Actors and directors are all about money. Period. Most have no higher education and spend their professional and personal life playing pretend. The last person I want an opinion on any subject is one of those!
Violence does not cause sane people to do insane things, however, it does numb their ability to be shocked by violence. It does however, in my view, make insane people do bad things.
Do we need violence? Do we need to defend the portrayal of ultra realistic violence? Is someone’s life going to be that much worse if they can’t see arms and legs being ripped off?
As far as God and Faith, we all have faith in something. We have faith in a higher power, a higher force, a God, or we have faith that no such higher power exists. We have faith that when we turn the key in our car it will start most mornings. We have faith in “Mother Earth” or “Science” or philosophy.
Not a person alive does not have faith in something.
SBG