Get Off My Lawn!
Are you kidding me? I was playing Gears of War 2 with my brother in law today and watched as an alien invader was chainsawed in half.
I almost lost my lunch.
I am not a prude or old woman, but this is too much for me. I won’t play COD4 in front of my daughter, and it has a tame gore rating compared to most other games.
Now, I watch Tom and Jerry and the Looney Toons gang with her. The act of a cat getting his head slammed in a door is violent, but it is not graphic, and that is the big difference.
My generation was raised on cartoon violence and most of us are fine; we are not crazy psycho killers. I am not say in that graphic violence will make you a psycho, but I do believe that it does desensitizes people.
Like all of us, my daughter will eventually have to find the acceptable level of violence that society will tolerate. I found that fighting is acceptable. Fighting and using a weapon is not. It is called assault with a deadly weapon and is punishable by law. The inevitability of children throwing blows at school is alright with me. It is the desensitization to that type of violence that frightens me.
Here is an example. In 1968 the band MC5 sang the song, “Kick out the jams.” The opening line in the song was, “Kick out the jams mother@#&%*s!”
In 1968, this caused a huge up roar. Can you imagine if this album had been released today. That was the only swear word in the entire album, but is was THE one to many. Today people are desensitized to this kind of language. I would be willing to bet that you have at least 5 CDs that used that word repeatedly.
Not only has the language usage changed but it seems that the fighting that I talked about earlier has given way to gun battles on the playground.
So, the point is when we are no longer phased by the elevation of violence then it starts to become accepted and easier to do. That kind of cozy relationship with blood and guts is never good.
If you have not seen any Gears here you go, but be warned.
Image Source:Poldavo (Alex)
