With the many recent school shooting around the United States (and even Canada), there has been a lot of talk about why these kids would do such a thing. Television, music, and video games are usually to blame. However, I like to debate otherwise.
First off, television: The average American child watches twenty hours of TV per week. By the time they are eighteen, they will have seen 200 000 acts of violence, 16 000 of which being murders. This averages out to be about twenty-six acts of violence per hour.
As a result of this, many people, including doctors think that this is what pushes children to act violently towards their peers. This hypothesis is derived from the fact that Americans watch the most TV and also have the highest rates of teen pregnancy, violent crimes, and drug use among teens.
The American child spends about twice as much time vegging in front of that damn box than they do the classroom. Many people believe that this is the cause of obesity, high cholesterol levels, and shorter attention spans among US children.
However, I do not believe that our nation's problems are a result of violence on TV. I think that it is utterly ludicrous that our nation's politicians are attempting to put a cap on the number of people that can be killed in movies such as Scream just because they believe that our nation's problems are the result of violence on TV and in movies. If someone wants to buy the ticket or rent the movie when it comes out of video to see it, they should be able to see what they are paying for. Not everybody wants to see jolly, happy movies where boy meets girl, they fall in love, have a beautiful white wedding in a big Catholic Church, and have seven perfect children! Some people want to see killing action once in awhile! Everyone knows it's fake! No one really dies! They're usually dumb movies too. I thought I Still Know What You Did Last Summer was a horrible movie! Even the title was dumb! Shouldn't it have been I Know What You Did Two Summers Ago (OK, I know that just doesn't sound right)?
TV is fake (most of it anyway)! Any moron knows this! By the time a kid reaches seven years old, they have heard that TV is fake at least a million times! Today's children are being brought up in a technological age, and they know what special effects are.
So, if TV is not to blame, then what is? Well, my friend, read on.
People have blamed music for the longest time. "Sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll" are all linked together. It's just like in the movie Footloose. Dancing and rock were the Devil according to Mr. I'm Better than You because I'm a Preacher. It's sad that some parents will deny their children certain kinds of music just because of stupid assumptions. Even the father of Collective Soul musicians Ed and Dean Roland forbade his children to listen to certain kinds of music (he was a preacher too). Sure, they might not think it's music, but their children do! I consider myself to be very well rounded in my appreciation for music. I'll listen to everything from Jewel and Sarah McLachlan (who are thought of as soothing and relaxing) to Orgy and Metallica (who are not thought of as relaxing and calming). I know I'd be utterly infuriated if my parents would have forbidden me to listen to 89X or buy Orgy's Candyass album.
People make stupid assumptions about music. Just because a child listens to a certain kind of music doesn't mean that they're going to go out and kill themselves, commit mass homicides, have orgies, or shoot up heroin! Just because a child owns and listens to Marilyn Manson's Antichrist Superstar album, it doesn't mean that they are Satanist and are planning to sacrifice the neighbor's 10 cats on their homemade altar and chant some spell that they read in some book! Just because a kid listens to Nirvana, it doesn't mean that they're going to blow their head off while high on drugs like Kurt Cobain! Just because a kid listens to Ozzy Osbourne, it doesn't mean that he/she is going to bite the head off some cute, little creature! Metallica is not Satanist music! Listening to the Indigo Girls or Melissa Etheridge doesn't mean that it's going to "make" a child gay either (which I guess was thought by those bigots in South Carolina or where ever that canceled a free show that the Indigo Girls were going to play at a high school just because Amy Ray and Emily Saliers are open lesbians). Because I hear the words, "It's OK. I'll do what I want if I chose. I can take the fall, there's a choice. It's my destiny in my hands. Yeah, it's up to me. I can drive. I can shoot a gun in the streets. Score me some heroin. I can jump. Be a sacrifice. Bear the Cross, just like Jesus Christ" (from Van Halen's "Don't Tell Me (What Love Can Do)" off their Balance album), I'm not going to go out and kill somebody and shoot up heroin! Sure maybe some people do stupid things because of music, but that doesn't mean that we have the right to rob our children of music. My life would be virtually nothing without music. It's not fair to blame society's problems on music! People have to remember that today's music is based on Jazz, which is based on Classical (remember Mr. Holland's Opus?). It's all tied together.
So, if TV is not to blame, and music is not to blame, then what is? Well, my friend, keep reading. The answer lies ahead.
People also blame video games, especially ones like Doom. You know, the first person, kill the demons in Hell games. That's a bunch of shit! Video games don't make people (normal people anyway) want to blow people up, especially an entire high school. I want to know what psychologist or whatever came up with this load of shit. I play video games all the time. I have played Doom. I have spent hours and hours playing Doom. I have even put it on the second most difficult level and beat the game, which requires a lot of blowing things up. However, blowing up pink Minotaur-like creatures while my fingers were glued to the keyboard and my eyes were glued to a computer screen never once made me contemplate buying a gun and shooting someone. It didn't even make me want to go out and shoot something (like an animal or something).
I play a lot of RPGs. My favorite is Dragon Warrior III for the 8-bit NES. Playing that game over and over again (I've probably beaten that game at least twenty times) has never once made me want to go out to Luisa's Place to meet my three other party members to venture out on a quest to defeat Baramos and save the world! What's the difference between saying a child is going to mimic that or is going to mimic Doom?
I believe that video games have actually kept me out of a lot of trouble. Instead of having the urge to go out, do drugs, party, and whatever else "normal" seventeen-year-olds do, I have the urge to pick up a PSX controller and play a video game! I must be evil! I have never done drugs (including smoking and drinking) and have never had sex! I play video games! (I'm trying to be sarcastic here.) It's stupid what people think. (OK, I'm being serious again.) Video games do not influence a child to that degree.
In addition, RPGs are NOT associated with Satanism!
So, if it's not TV, and it's not music, and it's not video games, then what is it?!
I believe our problems lie within poor parenting. Poor values begin at home. The children that committed the brutal school shootings were brought up in bad homes. There's no doubt in my mind that that is the reason why it happened. It wasn't TV, video games, or music. It was the parents. Sure, everything looks perfect on the outside: upper-middle class family, gorgeous house, mom's a teacher, dad's a principal, etc. However, while mommy and daddy were busy with their careers, social lives, and golfing or whatever, the children were at home being neglected. Mommy and daddy never gave them the time they needed. They never sat their children down to tell them right from wrong; that what they see on TV and in video games is fake and/or immoral. Their parents weren't home or were too busy with whatever to ask them how their day went!
I believe this because their parents said that they had no frickin' clue that their children were planning on doing what they did. I'm sorry, but if I sat there and was planning to blow up my high school (which is a Hell of a lot smaller than any of the school's that were victimized), my parents would know. If not through snooping through my belongings, but through suspicions derived from my deranged actions. I believe in privacy and all, but if you suspect that there is something wrong in your child's life, it's better to snoop than to have innocent people die at the hands of your child! Give me a break! This is common sense, people! Parents need to be parents. They need to get their heads out of their careers and their social lives and take care of their children like their children need to be taken care of!
I have always had one parent at home. If my dad was working days, my mom was working nights and vice-versa. Even to this day. My brother is 15, and I am 17. There's really no reason for a parent to be home, but one of them is still always there. My brother and I have no time to get in trouble. And I know that if he was planning to blow somebody up, I'd suspect it.
It's not TV that corrupts our children. It's not music, and it sure the Hell ain't video games. It starts at home at an early age. If parents, rather than television, would raise their children, society's problems would be minimized. It all starts at home, friends. It's not TV. It's not music. It's not video games.
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