The Kids Are Alright
I had a different post in mind, but this issue came up twice in as many days in my life and now I can't get it off my mind. So I believe I will yank these thoughts out of my head and put them here. These thoughts aren't fine silver threads and this isn't a pensieve but maybe this will clear my head for finals.
Stop blaming pop culture for crazy people and bad parenting.
That is it in a nutshell, but I will elaborate. I am tired of listening to people blame the violent or uncontrolled behavior of their kids on video games, movies, television, books, and news. Now, I will make the obvious statement that people like me do and that is to say that I have enjoyed and partook in these timekillers and have never once murdered anyone, beat up random strangers, shot anyone, raped anyone, or joined a cult. With that a critic might say, "But not everyone is like you." And I would agree, some people have issues. But they did not get them from Grand Theft Auto, Quentin Tarantino, or Stephen King. These are what is sometimes known in the insurance business as pre-existing conditions. If a guy watches Natural Born Killers 21 times in a row and then goes out and murders a family, did watching Natural Born Killers 21 times in a row make him crazy or did he watch Natural Born Killers 21 times in a row because he was crazy. I realize what I might be doing here is trying to solve the chicken and egg debate, but to me you just don't watch a movie 21 times in a row if you are sane.
But I digress, we are not talking about a crazy man watching movies and then committing a crime, no what we are talking about is what kind of harm these mind numbing activities has on our children. Because our children are so much worse today than before Rockstar Gaming, Interenet Pornograpy, and Harry Potter? Or maybe our perception of them is worse? Hmmm......But that is not really the point of my post, but we will get to that too some in here and in a later post. Some of you may find this hard to believe, but the world was a violent place before Bill Gates re-invented the computer, and before Mario ever ate a shroom and stomped an oomba. Before children were running around San Andreas as CJ shooting up San Fiero, children were running around their backyards with toy guns or sometimes BB guns and shooting at each other while pretending to be Wyatt Earp, or sometimes bad guys like Jesse James or Billy the Kid. What is the rationale that says that acting out the murders of people in your backyard with friends and fake to semi fake firearms is better than acting out through someone else via a television. Now when it is put this way both sound pretty disturbing, but one of these is constantly attacked as being a horrible influence on children and one of these is the cherished childhood pasttime of cowboys and indians, or cops and robbers.
Before everyone but Steve Buscemi got a bullet in them at the end of Reservoir Dogs football was invented. It's North American incarnation came about as far back as 1861 and involved no pads and alot hitting, fighting, and injuries. Most young boys today idolize their favorite sport stars wearing jerseys or hanging posters and most people find this acceptable, hell I do. But yet we say that the mindless violence of a movie or game will corrupt their mind, but the mindless violence of a spectator sport is ok. Okay, hell alot of people think it is admirable, hell I do. Also, boxing has been around since 1891 and the sole purpose of this sport is to beat the other guy senseless, there is no pretending involved there like in a movie, the two men (or women sometimes) actually beat the shit out of each other.
Now I could keep going with these examples, it would be all to easy to point to incidences of violence in history that could have affected children. But that would just drag this out and make my post longer than necessary. The point is that violence has always been there, to scare, excite, or entice children. We as humans are fascinated by violence that is why Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Bruckheimer are such big draws, and that is why they can charge $50.00 to watch a prize fight. But because a child might view these acts of violence, and if you believe it, might be influenced to commit the horrible acts they witness, should we ban and destroy all these things, should we tone it down to make it more kid friendly, or maybe, here's a crazy idea, should we be better parents?
This is the very large problem and concern for me. It seems to me that the parents that detest and protest violence, sex, and drugs in the media don't want to parent their kids thmrselves. They want all of America to be responsible and parent their kids. They don't want their children to play God of War so God of War should be banned, They don't want their children to watch South Park so they think that the rest of America shouldn't be allowed to watch South Park. Why is it my job to sacrifice for your children? Your job as a parent is to protect your child so if you have a serious problem with these things you should definitely not let your child enjoy these fine things, but this responsibilty falls to you not me. Personally I like violence, sex, and drugs in my pop culture.
Here's the thing I am getting to, growing up my mother didn't think I should watch Porky's, so you know what, she didn't let me watch Porky's. My mother didn't think I should listen to Gun's N Roses "Appetite for Destruction" so when my aunt got for me on Christmas she took it away. Do I think that Porky's or GNR would have created inappropriate thoughts or behavior? No, but my mother did, so she did her job as a parent she protected me from something she found harmful.
Now I don't believe in the "blame the parents" philosophy dispite how it sounds. I believe each person is ultimately responsible for his or hers on actions regardless of how they were raised, or what they watched. In the end each person has to stand as an individual and start thinking for themselves, but it never hurts to have a good role model and that is what a good parent can be. The point is I think for parents to be to blame then pop culture.
I had a different post in mind, but this issue came up twice in as many days in my life and now I can't get it off my mind. So I believe I will yank these thoughts out of my head and put them here. These thoughts aren't fine silver threads and this isn't a pensieve but maybe this will clear my head for finals.
Stop blaming pop culture for crazy people and bad parenting.
That is it in a nutshell, but I will elaborate. I am tired of listening to people blame the violent or uncontrolled behavior of their kids on video games, movies, television, books, and news. Now, I will make the obvious statement that people like me do and that is to say that I have enjoyed and partook in these timekillers and have never once murdered anyone, beat up random strangers, shot anyone, raped anyone, or joined a cult. With that a critic might say, "But not everyone is like you." And I would agree, some people have issues. But they did not get them from Grand Theft Auto, Quentin Tarantino, or Stephen King. These are what is sometimes known in the insurance business as pre-existing conditions. If a guy watches Natural Born Killers 21 times in a row and then goes out and murders a family, did watching Natural Born Killers 21 times in a row make him crazy or did he watch Natural Born Killers 21 times in a row because he was crazy. I realize what I might be doing here is trying to solve the chicken and egg debate, but to me you just don't watch a movie 21 times in a row if you are sane.
But I digress, we are not talking about a crazy man watching movies and then committing a crime, no what we are talking about is what kind of harm these mind numbing activities has on our children. Because our children are so much worse today than before Rockstar Gaming, Interenet Pornograpy, and Harry Potter? Or maybe our perception of them is worse? Hmmm......But that is not really the point of my post, but we will get to that too some in here and in a later post. Some of you may find this hard to believe, but the world was a violent place before Bill Gates re-invented the computer, and before Mario ever ate a shroom and stomped an oomba. Before children were running around San Andreas as CJ shooting up San Fiero, children were running around their backyards with toy guns or sometimes BB guns and shooting at each other while pretending to be Wyatt Earp, or sometimes bad guys like Jesse James or Billy the Kid. What is the rationale that says that acting out the murders of people in your backyard with friends and fake to semi fake firearms is better than acting out through someone else via a television. Now when it is put this way both sound pretty disturbing, but one of these is constantly attacked as being a horrible influence on children and one of these is the cherished childhood pasttime of cowboys and indians, or cops and robbers.
Before everyone but Steve Buscemi got a bullet in them at the end of Reservoir Dogs football was invented. It's North American incarnation came about as far back as 1861 and involved no pads and alot hitting, fighting, and injuries. Most young boys today idolize their favorite sport stars wearing jerseys or hanging posters and most people find this acceptable, hell I do. But yet we say that the mindless violence of a movie or game will corrupt their mind, but the mindless violence of a spectator sport is ok. Okay, hell alot of people think it is admirable, hell I do. Also, boxing has been around since 1891 and the sole purpose of this sport is to beat the other guy senseless, there is no pretending involved there like in a movie, the two men (or women sometimes) actually beat the shit out of each other.
Now I could keep going with these examples, it would be all to easy to point to incidences of violence in history that could have affected children. But that would just drag this out and make my post longer than necessary. The point is that violence has always been there, to scare, excite, or entice children. We as humans are fascinated by violence that is why Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Bruckheimer are such big draws, and that is why they can charge $50.00 to watch a prize fight. But because a child might view these acts of violence, and if you believe it, might be influenced to commit the horrible acts they witness, should we ban and destroy all these things, should we tone it down to make it more kid friendly, or maybe, here's a crazy idea, should we be better parents?
This is the very large problem and concern for me. It seems to me that the parents that detest and protest violence, sex, and drugs in the media don't want to parent their kids thmrselves. They want all of America to be responsible and parent their kids. They don't want their children to play God of War so God of War should be banned, They don't want their children to watch South Park so they think that the rest of America shouldn't be allowed to watch South Park. Why is it my job to sacrifice for your children? Your job as a parent is to protect your child so if you have a serious problem with these things you should definitely not let your child enjoy these fine things, but this responsibilty falls to you not me. Personally I like violence, sex, and drugs in my pop culture.
Here's the thing I am getting to, growing up my mother didn't think I should watch Porky's, so you know what, she didn't let me watch Porky's. My mother didn't think I should listen to Gun's N Roses "Appetite for Destruction" so when my aunt got for me on Christmas she took it away. Do I think that Porky's or GNR would have created inappropriate thoughts or behavior? No, but my mother did, so she did her job as a parent she protected me from something she found harmful.
Now I don't believe in the "blame the parents" philosophy dispite how it sounds. I believe each person is ultimately responsible for his or hers on actions regardless of how they were raised, or what they watched. In the end each person has to stand as an individual and start thinking for themselves, but it never hurts to have a good role model and that is what a good parent can be. The point is I think for parents to be to blame then pop culture.
For those of you who have stuck it out this far I salute you. This post has not been perfectly concise or linear, but I hope that I have made my point clearly. If my next post is the one that I had originally intended on, it will be better written. But that is my problem when I get upset about something, I may make some great argument and rebutals, but they are usually jumbled.
posted by Brandon Michael Collinsworth at 10:22 AM
5 Comments:
I think you’ve touched on some important issues, and I agree with you to an extent. I believe that pop culture should not bear the sole blame for corrupting children. Just because CJ shoots people does not mean that lil’ Wilbert will shoot people; however, you seem to suggest that popular culture does not negatively influence children in any way. I’m not sure that I would go that far.
As I was thinking about your post, I started to wonder about your own decisions that you’ve made regarding parenting, which led me to think, “I wonder what Brandon lets and doesn’t let his kids consume.” So then I thought, “I’ll ask him.”
If they wanted to, would you let your kids watch Southpark or Porky’s? Would you let them play Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas? Would you let them own a copy and listen to GNR’s Appetite for Destruction? If so, why? If not, why not?
I have some more thoughts on your post, but due this ridiculous end-of-the-semester work overload, I must refrain from blabbering on and on about one of my clinical and personal passions—popular culture!
No, I don't let my children watch South Park. The deeper meanings and subtlties behind episodes would be totally lost on them at their age so the show would amount to nothing but a bunch of dick and fart jokes.
Yes I let my children play Grand Theft Auto. The only game I have ever not let them play was God of War, that is because that game features graphic nudity at a couple of points. But in a few years I would probably let Katelynn play that one too if she wanted to, when she is a bit more mature. Which is the same for South Park, once she is more mature I will let her watch it.
Now I don't censor their music at all. Katelynn is mostly into that sugary sweet pop music, but she listens to a little rock and a little rap. But I will not regulate their music, I hated having mine regulated as a kid and I won't do it to them. Now here is what I will do, I will know what they are listening to, playing, or watching. I will know what it is about and I will talk with them about anything that needs explaining. I will make sure that my children understand the very simple concept of fiction versus reality.
Kind of ironic. I was perusing through Relevant Magazine's forum and noticed a topic called "What Was 'Evil' as a Kid?" Here's the link: http://www.relevantmagazine.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=13774&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
They're discussing the different popular culture stuff that they were not able to consume as kids.
Back to your post. I’m able to think about things other than A PASSAGE TO INDIA and British Restoration Comedy. Woo Hoo!
You’ve done a great job of illustrating yesterday’s supposed “innocence” regarding violence verses today’s supposed “guilt” regarding violence in the media. You’ve helped my thinking on the matter. I understand that some parents are concerned about violence in video games today. Although I do find it a bit disturbing that our kids today can beat the mess out of innocent old men and simulate sniper-style shootings of innocent crowds of people from the tops of buildings, I still see your point about violence (it’s not like innocents did not die during the cowboys vs. Indians gunfights back in the day, right? Why else would those great Western heroes (the cowboys) want to chase down and kill those pesky, backward Indians?).
You’ve defended media violence in between these two statements. 1. “Because our children are so much worse today than before Rockstar Gaming, Interenet Pornograpy, and Harry Potter? Or maybe our perception of them is worse? Hmmm......” and 2. “It seems to me that the parents that detest and protest violence, sex, and drugs in the media don't want to parent their kids thmrselves.” Although you defended violence in the media, you did not mention pornography and sex or drugs in your defense. Would the “innocent” fun of cowboys vs. Indians be as innocent if our children imitated the sexual acts that cowboys often engaged in with prostitutes at whorehouses? From what I understand, similar options are available in GRAND THEFT AUTO: SAN ANDREAS. The character is able to pick up prostitutes and have sex with them in order to increase his stamina. I’m not sure what effects this would have on kids, but the message sent seems a little off and not quite as “innocent” as the violence associated with games of cowboys vs. Indians.
I sympathize with the parents who detest these things. Some of these parents may not “want to parent their kids themselves,” but I don’t think most of these concerned parents fit into this category. I think they’re appalled by some of the options available in games today (as well as other media content), and they hate the fact that they will have to look like the bad guy by not allowing their kids to partake. The easy solution—try to get this stuff banned. Most of these parents would rather get rid of their digital enemies so that they don’t have to deal with the pressure from their kids. I am willing to hedge my bets that these parents are not too concerned about violating the rights of adults who want to have digital sex with digital prostitutes. But at the same time, I believe that these efforts to ban everything are futile. Here’s how I feel about it: I’ll fight my own battle in my own home—not yours.
There is one important thing to say about GTA and that is if you pick up the case and look in the lower left corner. Not even small mind up, it is pretty noticable. Is an, "M". The "M" stands fot Mature. The breakdown of that rating is that this game is meant for ages 17+. It is illegal for stores to sell this game to minors, that means that an adult had to buy these games for children.
In Florida, I believe is a grandmother who bought this game for her grandson. Then the now infamous "Hot Coffee Mod" was found, this is the mod that allows people to engage in a sex game that was not intended to be part of the original game. The part you address about having sex with prostitues to increase stamina was already in there, not hidden and intended to be played. Now this grandmother is suing Rockstar and it's subsidiaries. That is laughable. She is suing because a modification that was never meant to be used was found. But there was already sex in the game, along with violence, and profanity. All of this with an "M" rating and she bought this for her 14 year old grandson. Now she wants to sue. That is ridiculous.
Everything that can and should be done to keep these things away from children is being done. Movies, Albums, and Video Games are submitted to a panel for ratings befitting their contents. Within these ratings the information about what kind of possibly offensive material can be found. A parent doesn't have to even work that hard to find out and make an informed decision.
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