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 19:08:35 GMT
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Viewed:
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295 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Mark Sandlin writes:
> in article G8w4Ir.J6D@lugnet.com, Daniel Jassim wrote:
>
> > Were the teen gunmen in Colombine spelling?) rich or poor?
>
> I'm not sure if that has as much to do with it as the situation they were
> in. When I was in high school, I was squarely in the NERD category. The
> Athletes and the Beautiful People made fun of me and my friends all the
> time, in any situation or class. Perhaps the Columbine shooters were not
> able to withstand the continual taunts and insults. The Popular People in
> high school were some of the cruelest people I have ever encountered... and
> they never let up. They made fun of me and my friends all the time. People
> can crack under that kind of pressure. Still, I managed to find some sort of
> equilibrium and cast off the insecurities the popular kids may have
> projected onto me.
Boy, that takes me back. I'm sure a lot of 'us' were in the
NERD category. Some of us still are, but we have long CVs and/or
money, so it's somehow okay now. Things really began to change
in college. These have been the best twelve years of my life! ;)
Regarding the Popular People (or Beautiful People, as they're
sometimes called), their taunting and picking really belied a
ton of insecurities and quirks on their part, quirks that I saw
in spades when I went to my 10th anniversary reunion in '99.
Oh MAN were some of those folks sad. I think part of the ability
to avoid extremism and antisociality has to do with, well,
socialization. It falls to parents, siblings, and friends to
do much of that, but part of it was also the realisation that
when college came along the situation would be reversed. Grad
school is just a more extreme version of the nerd farm that was
the Honors College. Baa-a-a-a-a-a-a!
> However, had I not been a member of my own social group, it would have been
> quite possible for me to have done the same thing. I knew where my stepdad
> hid the key to the gun safe. I knew how to use a gun, from trips to the
> shooting range. It's kind of frightening when I think about it.
Yeah. But I sometimes worry about a culture that's not willing
to confront its demons, or seeks to hide them--for example, the
banning of hate speech in Germany, or the banning of handguns in
other parts of the world, on the grounds that it's dangerous.
It needs to be addressed and put in its place, not made taboo.
I would say that being made familiar with these things made me
understand their position and, more than just that they were
wrong, but *why* they were wrong.
> But I grew up watching violent TV shows and movies, and playing with GI-Joe
> action figures. And yet, I'm a very gentle and nonviolent person. Is it some
> innate quality that makes me this way? Or is it my upbringing?
I've always been the same way. Man, did I ever love playing
war (with toy guns) down at the City Park in the 1980s...no way
I'd ever get away with that now, I'd be on the front-page! I
also loved G.I. Joe (just sold that collection in 98--hey, how
come nobody ever seemed to die in those wars?) and, like lots and
lots of Americans, I had a fascination for everything WWII German
and military (which we somehow believe can be separated from the
ideology that produced and promoted it). But I never shot anyone,
never even got in any fights, and rarely even raised my voice. I
took it internally and somehow got over it. Maybe a Gandhi action
figure (or non-action...it resists passively) is overdue...?
The current understanding of violence that is being instilled in
kids might have a lot to do with the era their parents matured in--
an era of truly senseless violence and moral ambiguity on a national
scale (meaning Viet Nam). For those of us whose parents came of
age during the 'Last Good War,' the meanings of violence, justice,
and freedom and their relationship may have seemed a lot clearer.
At any rate, there was a stronger consensus over those things.
Just a thought, not really a debate.
best
Lindsay
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Is Bionicle violence?
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| (...) I'm not sure if that has as much to do with it as the situation they were in. When I was in high school, I was squarely in the NERD category. The Athletes and the Beautiful People made fun of me and my friends all the time, in any situation or (...) (23 years ago, 17-Feb-01, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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