Video games and violence (redux)
In response to my earlier post on this.
Now the BBC is reporting that the Dixons Group (which includes “video game specialist Game” [shouldn’t that read “populist”?]) and other retailers of computer games are considering removing Manhunt and its ilk from their shelves.
I had more sympathy for the parents, but they’re now using and abusing their position as spokespeople to now try to restrict the liberties of other people. Here’s a quote from the murdered teenager’s father:
He said: “It’s a video instruction on how to murder somebody, it just shows how you kill people and what weapons you use.”
Riiiiiight.
Is this man also calling for the banning of a vast majority of Hollywood blockbuster action and adventure films? They’re equally (if not more so) graphic and instructional
Is he trying to get history documentaries with re-enacted battle scenes and manuscripts banned? Detailed accounts of some incredibly grisly ends are available.
Does he want literature which includes graphic descriptions of violence removed from our collective psyche? Hey, even the Bible tells you in no uncertain terms how to kill someone by nailing them to a couple of bits of wood.
No. He’s one–tracked; reactionary; knee–jerking.
“If we can stop another family having to go through what we’re going through now, by taking this games and games of this nature off the shelves, then we would have achieved something and Stefan wouldn’t have died in vain.”
No. Your son died because a screwed up kid — in too deep with a drug crowd — decided to rob him and, for some reason, decided to kill him. A computer game wasn’t involved, it didn’t coerce him carry a bag containing a knife and a hammer, it didn’t tell him to knock on your door and request your son to follow him, it wasn’t there when the kid decided to attack your son, drag him into the bushes and remove his clothes.
So, shouldn’t we be trying to ban hammers? They’re obviously very effective weapons.
Shouldn’t we be blacklisting cinemas that show Bruce Willis or Will Smith films? I have absolutely no idea how many bullets have flown in even just one of these.
No, we should be counselling these people, explaining to them that the kid was messed up in the head and obviously has some wires crossed somewhere.
They’ve already got the person that committed this crime living with his punishment, there’s no need to punish us all with their set of values.