Halo Killed my Hamster

Another aspect of the blameless society which has been commented on often enough before I dragged my gaze over it.



It would appear that we live in a blameless society these days. No more should parents worry about how they raise their children, no more should anyone be concerned about what is taught at school. And certainly, no one should even begin to think that a society in which troubled teens regularly massacre their schoolmates may perhaps have one or two fundamental flaws. And do you know why there is no need to think or to worry in this way? Do you know what the evil and insidious menace is that sweeps across the world like a Mongol horde across the Russian steppe?

Computer games.

Yes, that is correct, computer games are the root of all evil. Well, according to the $3.3 billion lawsuit filed in America on behalf of victims and families they are anyway. The named respondents (Sony, Time Warner, Sega, and Nintendo) are accused of marketing products that "...deliberately influenced Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold to murder. Absent the combination of extremely violent video games and these boys' incredibly deep involvement, use of and addiction to these games and the boys' basic personalities, these murders and this massacre would not have occurred."

Umm...did I miss something here? I had no idea that the above named corporations had as their secret agenda the wholesale slaughter of western youth. And so cunningly done as well (What on earth must their board meetings be like? "Okay, our tech division reports that we're way ahead on development of the latest instalment of the Quake series! Graphics are improved by 22%, sound by 30%, gameplay is 10% faster, and most impressively, the projected casualty rate among American youth alone is up 38%!"). It's good to see that the forces of evil are up to date with technology; it doesn't seem that long ago since subliminal messages on records were the bugbear of choice amongst slightly hysterical Americans.

The choice of words in the lawsuit alone should raise a few eyebrows. They seem to be saying that but for the fact that these boys were addicted to playing violent games, oh, and the fact that they were disturbed in the first place, then none of this would ever have happened. Funny how they mention that second point last isn't it? (I can almost imagine the lawyer mumbling it under his breath as he reads out the particulars of the lawsuit)

So then, why is nobody asking the question "What disturbed the personality of these boys so much?" If it was the computer games themselves, why haven't they said as much in the lawsuit? They've quite clearly separated the two elements, so we must assume that it was something else. If that is the case, doesn't it follow that the computer games are only half of the story and, as a mass produced media, why should a company have to modify all of it's outlay to meet the needs of a staggeringly tiny percentage of the world's populace who are so disturbed that they can only deal with their raging hormones and attendant adolescent problems via the use of their parents' extensive arsenal of semi automatic weaponry.

And that leads me onto yet another well travelled road; guns and teenagers do not mix. When I was younger I was what is politely described as a loner, and colloquially known as a weirdo. I showed all of the classic symptoms; long hair, listened to heavy metal, played Dungeons and Dragons, played violent computer games etc, and yet I singularly failed to exterminate my classmates in an orgy of guns and violence (and if you'd seen the way some of them had turned out then you'd possibly be upset about that...) However, if I'm totally honest with myself, if I'd had access to the type of weaponry available in America...well, I still don't think I would have done anything but I can think of a few people who might have.

I do not blame the fact that I played computer games for my banishment from the society of my peers. To an extent it was self imposed (I imagined myself destined for far greater things than mere mortals such as they could comprehend. Yes, I was an insufferably arrogant little toerag!) but mainly, no-one in authority such as parents or teachers really paid attention to the way I was behaving. Yes, I preferred my own company and skulked in my room. That is because I was a teenager. Teenagers do that sort of thing, it's in the contract (just above the clause saying that no-one will ever fancy you as your face resembles a volcanic landscape with yellow lava).
That doesn't mean I had bad parents or ignorant teachers. They just dealt with teenage angst in the normal way; they ignored it and waited for it to go away. I make no criticism of this, it's just that perhaps we need to rethink our attitude as a society toward the way that we raise and treat teenagers. I'd love to argue that gun control is the answer, but although that would stop the killing, it wouldn't change the number of dysfunctional young men and women that are churned out of Western high schools every year. Something needs to be done, or we can look forward to more disgraceful lawsuits like this one.

Personally, the only people I can see making any profit from this are the lawyers. A similar lawsuit was dismissed earlier this year and I see no reason why this one should be any different. Add to this the failed lawsuits against Judas Priest and Ozzy Ozborne for being responsible for the suicides of a number of young men (I sympathise; listening to Judas Priest has much the same effect on me) and we can see that it is a pretty much hopeless case. Except that is for the lawyers who should collect a nice fat fee for taking the case in the first place, and if my some miracle they win then the fee will be bigger still. In the meantime, America (and the rest of the western world) will continue to delude themselves that (insert media of your choice) are responsible for whatever tragedy has robbed families of their loved ones. I wonder if they're at all familiar with the concept of doublethink...