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The school shooting that happened in Newtown was horrible. It is tragically sad. I feel awful for the friends and family members for all those involved.

I'm very concerned now, however, about the public reaction to the murders. People are fearful, and fear is an emotion about avoiding danger. People want to know what should we avoid to prevent this from happening again: Should we avoid violent videogames? Should we avoid guns? Should we avoid "evil" music? Should we avoid "crazy people" and lock them away? What can we avoid? What can we stop? What can we ban?

I greatly detest these fear-driven approaches to solving the problems of violence. They all restrict personal freedoms and liberty. Rather than asking what we should avoid, I think we should be asking what values we should create and build. See, the idea that we can hide violence and wickedness from people is frankly, an impossible goal. Even if you could burn every book, CD, DVD, and videogame on the planet, you will still have the violence in our minds to contend with. We need to figure out what allows the rest of us to experience violence in our media and in our thoughts on a regular basis (or even real violence experienced in our personal lives) and yet do NOT become psychopaths. I don't think the question of "why do people kill" has very interesting answers. It's usually "I was mad" or "I wanted to get something." So instead of asking "why do people kill" I think we should be asking "why don't people kill?"

I'm especially interested in what you, as gamers, have to say about this. As far as I know, none of you are murderers or even particularly aggressive, yet you engage in an awful lot of virtual gruesomeness. We entertain violent thoughts almost every day. How do you play the horrible stuff you play and think the horrible things you think and still stay the sane, caring, and productive members of society that you are?

Not enough space to hide the bodies.

flex wood wrote:Not enough space to hide the bodies.

And how do we have violent senses of humor without becoming murderers?

Because there isnt such thing as the perfect crime? id leave evidence all over, fuck im already screwed.

For me, there's a disconnect. I revel in games that let me kill my enemies in the most sadistic, cruel, and creative ways. However, at no point does my mind ever see them as anything more than polygons or pixels. They're not people, they're things. It's similar to the kind of enjoyment I'd get watching an anvil fall on someone in a Looney Tunes cartoon, or classic slapstick like The Three Stooges. I find humor in physical violence, but it's because I know that no one is getting seriously hurt, so I'm able to laugh at it or be entertained by it. I love Asian martial arts movies and pro wrestling, yet I've never had an interest in watching UFC, MMA, or boxing where I know the violence is real and not staged and performed.

I can watch a horror movie with blood and guts and what not and not be bothered by it at all, but I can't watch a medical show where I see real blood or the insides of a real human being during any kind of surgery. It sort of grosses me out. Again, it's that disconnect. When it's real, my mind can't handle it. When it's fake and I know it's fake, it has no effect on me.

The thought of actually killing someone creates all kinds of negative thoughts and feelings in me as well. Part of it is fear (legal repercussions, or the remote possibility of after life suffering), part of it is a sense of right and wrong (what right do I have to take someone's life? What makes my life have more value than anyone else's?) and part of it is just that strange feeling inside us that just makes us not able to do such a thing. Most people call that a conscience

I watched a military documentary once. One of the generals or colonels or whatever he was said that human beings don't have a natural desire to kill. It's not in our nature. He said that in order to turn these young kids into soldiers there is a certain mental reprogramming that has to be done to them, to put them in the kind of mindset where they actually could take someone's life if they had to. I was kind of disturbed watching that because it almost sounded like they brainwash these people.

J T wrote:

flex wood wrote:Not enough space to hide the bodies.

And how do we have violent senses of humor without becoming murderers?

Well to either avoid dealing with the issue in a serious manner or to make light of difficult issues so they are easier to cope with.

For the non-smartass answer, I've never been wronged in a way that I feel deserves death as retribution.

MrPopo wrote:For the non-smartass answer, I've never been wronged in a way that I feel deserves death as retribution.

Ok, so that's an interesting response. That would mean there is some sort of line that can be crossed where if you are wronged enough, then you might kill. Is that line a personal line, different for all of us? Is there some universal line? Or, is it both, but as a society we should achieve to pull people's personal lines closer to a democratically decided universal line (and how does one do that?)?

J T is on to something, were all killers, we just dont know it yet

Minority Report to the rescue!

J T wrote:

MrPopo wrote:For the non-smartass answer, I've never been wronged in a way that I feel deserves death as retribution.

Ok, so that's an interesting response. That would mean there is some sort of line that can be crossed where if you are wronged enough, then you might kill. Is that line a personal line, different for all of us? Is there some universal line? Or, is it both, but we should achieve to pull people's personal lines closer to the universal one (and how does one do that?)?

Milgram/Stanford, yo. If you're asking whether that line should be universal or personal, I'd say a combination. There should be a minimum threshold (so a small confrontation over pizza is entirely unacceptable, but Timothy McVeigh absolutely deserved the death sentence he received.