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Games and Music, the New Book Burning
It seems that a Newport News, VA pastor finally got around to reading Fahrenheit 451 and has decided that it was a good idea. Despite several studies claiming the contrary, Rev. Richard Patrick is blaming violent video games and music for crimes that he say has affected 90% of his congregation in one way or another.
and has every right in the world to burn whatever he wants that is his in order to make a point.
Rock music in the fifies, rap music today, it makes really no difference. Anybody that 'emulates' some figure be it a pop musician, a movie star or a religious figure should learn to think for themselves.
All these people getting their panties in a twist about some kids being influenced should spend more time educating individuals, not attacking the availability of role models, no matter where you go you'll find good ones and bad ones.
If parents can't educate their kids to the point where the kids are so easily influenced then the solution is not to attack the people that are being followed.
It's not like these rappers have mind control or anything like that.
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Yes, yes, it's all music and games fault, after all, before music and games there was no crime and no violence. "Witch" burning only happened after a Burn the Witch video-game and war and massacre only happened after we got a song telling us to do it.
alias possession='chmod 666 satan && ls
What's funny to me is that we in the west look at conservative mullahs in the middle east shutting down rock music and dancing, and we have a good laugh at how backwards they are. Then conservatives in the west turn around and try to ban comic books, or dungeons and dragons, or marijuana, or violent video games.
It's all the same thing, some conservative nitwit gets scared of something new, and they try to ban it instead of understanding it. It's a real shame we keep falling for it.
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Actually this guy does seem to be trying to make a difference. I don't think that Gangster rap or video games cause violence but as I have tried to say time and time again if books and art can influence people they why not music and video games?
Anyone want to claim that the Turner Diaries or Mein Komf never influenced anybody to act in a less than pleasant way?
Who hasn't heard someone say that this or that book has changed their life?
There is nothing wrong with saying "I don't think kids should play violent video games"
Just as there is nothing wrong saying that "I don't think people should eat meat".
This is only a problem when people try and make them illegal.
There is a huge difference between dislike and censorship. I don't want my kids reading the Turner diaries but I don't want them outlawed.
Saying that music and video games can not effect people is the same as saying that no form of art can effect anybody for good or evil.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
More Twoson than Cupertino
It would be great if you knew what you were talking about. I spend a lot of effort trying to interact with my kids. I spend a lot of time talking to them, and listening to them. However, they spend a lot more time talking to their friends and being on-line. It's easy to do nothing and then point the blame at the parents when things go wrong. The reality is that most parents are trying hard to do the right thing, but time and peer pressure make it very difficult. Finally, I find it interesting that some of the same people who support "it takes a village to raise a child" scream like crazy when somebody so much as suggests that the community even HELP raise kids.
In other words, you have no idea what being a parent is like.
Go away until you do.
It's amazing how easy it is to be a perfect parent - until we actually are one. Imagine what we'd say to somebody who says "I always program everything without any errors at all - that is, I will when I start programming." "I am a faultless driver - or I will be when I start driving." I'll listen to you a lot more when you actually have some experience with the things you're talking about.
It's also amazing to me how you make the leap to assume I don't do any of these things. Believe me, I try - but when your kids spend 7 hours in school and several more hours doing homework and being online, you're competing against a lot.
That's because red and blue states are a terrible way to reference individual states.
If you look at the electoral votes in all the states in the various elections, the majority of most are between 51% and 55%.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2004#Election_results
In 21 states the difference was less than 10%, and its this red state/blue state electoral college delineation that I believe is a huge polarizing factor on the country and isn't good for our political system.
Spoken like someone who has no f-ing idea what they are talking about. Have you ever raised a child??? Wait, I see further down in your post that you haven't -- so I would recommend a little less high-and-mighty preaching to someone who *has* been there and done that.
Yeah, you can be a Nazi in your own home if you want, but all that will do is push the child farther away. It's a fact of life: when kids hit their teenage years, they will interact more with their peers than their parents (unless you live on a homestead a bajillion miles from anywhere and homeschool your kids). The teenage years are when your kids begin to act like individuals, and stop taking advice from their parents. Overall, this is a good thing -- it's when adult traits like responsibility and the highly touted "ability to think for yourself" begin to develop, but like most learning processes, much of that development comes from screwing up and dealing with the aftermath. A parent's job at this point is to let kids make the mistakes that will help them learn while trying to prevent the mistakes that will cause them serious (i.e. legal/safety/etc.) problems.
The parent post is correct -- your kids will spend a lot more time talking to their friends and being on-line. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's a simple fact of life that this is a delicate time in the relationship between parent and child, and as such, it requires a lot of wisdom and judgment from the parent. You can stop them from interacting so much with their friends, but the result will most likely be worse than the problem you are trying to solve. Parents will be in competition with other influences -- many of which aren't so good for their childrens' well-being -- but taking your advice and being an absolute authoritarian is probably the worst thing you can do.
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?