Subject:
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Re: Is Bionicle violence?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Sat, 17 Feb 2001 22:38:42 GMT
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Viewed:
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400 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Daniel Jassim writes:
>
> Biologically speaking, yes, males are wired for conflict (i.e.
> testosterone).
I think it also has much to do with the incredibly fragile male ego. The "I
wanna see if I can beat him" attitude - the desire to be better than
everyone else. Obviously greed and covetousness play a role as well.
>
> YES! As Americans, many of us don't realize how desensitized we've become to
> violence, regardless of our age. We can be a very a violent culture. Most of
> us were raised by the TV and the gun, there's no question of that.
James started to mention violent video games and such. Despite the current
controversy over this issue in the media, the military figured it out years
ago. After WWII they found that less than 25% of rifleman fired their
weapons in combat. Soldiers who trained by firing at circular targets could
not bring themselves to site and fire upon other human beings. They began
training them by firing at human shaped targets (E-type silhouettes). The
firing rates jumped to 55% in the Korean War and to 90% in Viet Nam. When
soldiers were accustomed to aiming and firing at a human shaped target they
were more likely to kill in combat. Ironically, removing the moral
compunction in combat actually increased it's effects after the fact.
In reference to video games, here are some accounts of Task Force Ranger
from Mogadishu in Somalia back in 1993:
Journalist Mark Bowden wrote:
[Ranger Sergeant Scott] Galentine just pointed his M16 at someone down the
street, aimed at center mass, and squeezed off rounds. The man would drop.
Just like target practice, only cooler.
[Specialist John] Waddel shot the man. In books and movies when a soldier
shot a man for the first time he went through a moment of soul searching.
He didn’t give it a second thought. He just reacted.
Ranger Private First Class Jason Moore described his willingness to kill in
these words:
"I just started picking them out as they were running across the
intersection two blocks away, and it was weird because it was so much easier
than you would think. You hear all these stories about "the first time you
kill somebody is very hard." And it was so much like basic training, they
were just targets out there, and I don't know if it was the training that we
had ingrained in us, but it seemed to me it was just like a moving target
range, and you could just hit the target and watch it fall and hit the
target and watch it fall, and it wasn't real. They were far enough away so
that you didn't see, or I didn't see, all the guts and the gore and things
like that, but you would just see this target running across in your sight
picture, you pull the trigger and the target would fall, so it was a lot
easier then than it is now, as far as that goes."
Violence in video games and movies *can*, most certainly, have profound
effect on certain personality types. The problem then becomes identifying
these types. As many have already said, we've all been teased and mocked,
but we all haven't massacred our schoolmates. What's missing (or present) in
those that do?
>
> Why do kids REALLY LIKE movies and TV shows that
> involve heroes and villians using weapons like swords, guns and bombs?
I went to see "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" yesterday(should've been
called "Flying Tiger, Hidden Cables"). The skill of the combatants in this
movie is what made it compelling. Oddly enough, most of the fight scenes
were between two women, which kinda throws a monkey-wrench into this line of
argument.
>
> Do weapons make a guy (or a car, airplane, or spaceship) cooler? To a kid,
> the answer is always yes...
I believe it is much deeper than mere biology or psychology. I think the
adolescent attraction to the violent, weapon wielding antagonist has more to
do with an attitude of, "Look at him, he breaks all the rules and doesn't
care. Why can't I be like that?" Or, "Well, if nobody cares about me then I
don't care about anyone else." Self-centered rebellion - more emotional than
biological or psychological.
Bill
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Is Bionicle violence?
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| (...) Wow! (...) That's right, Bill! Hey, how about this? Yesterday, I spent the afternoon filling in for the supervisor at the local teen center. This was my first time actually doing a day there (I usually work with the elementary kids). Anyway, (...) (24 years ago, 18-Feb-01, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Is Bionicle violence?
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| (...) Very well said, James. Violence has certainly become a marketing tool to attract little and big "boys." This leads to your next comment: (...) Biologically speaking, yes, males are wired for conflict (i.e. testosterone). Ironically, I truly (...) (24 years ago, 17-Feb-01, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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