The Violence Blame Game

(Sorry if this has already been posted, I was looking through the blogs and couldn't see mine so have posted again)

So I’m watching one of those “Ten Greatest Crimes that . . .” show, and the Virginia Tech killings is number three. I remember at the time, like everybody else, being shocked at the thought that a person could commit such crimes seemingly out of nowhere. However, I also remember not being shocked at the predictable mentioning of “and of course the murderer was an avid video game player”, something which has apparently become the favourite tagline for many news stories of a violent nature. It is so very easy to blame a video game; they are largely marketed at males (the Virginia Tech killer being male), they contain simulated violence, which of course results in players to act out said violence in reality, and without vocal chords to defend itself it can’t really has no proof of not being an evil weapon of mass media destruction. It is blatantly obvious that video games are THE reason for mentally unstable, troubled human beings murdering others, having no regard for their lives, and seeking to therefore end them as a means of taking back some degree of power they have lost. Yes, very obvious.

I’m seriously not trying to belittle the very tragic situation by means of sarcasm; what happened was devastating for those who lost loved ones and a terrible tragedy indeed. But to blame it on ‘Counterstrike’ is so completely preposterous. The basis for such claim is ludicrous, seeing as there are millions of gamers who live healthy lives without the need to go on a killing spree. I know that when I am playing that the simulated world is not reality, that the agency of playing a game, of choosing to kill a person in order to steal their money say, is not real. No person in their right mind kills simply because they have done so whilst playing a game.

The person responsible for the Virginia killings was a troubled young man, yes he played video games, but he also ate breakfast in the morning, I guess that was the reason too, consumption of energy that fuelled his murderous plans. I’m sure that the producers of Cheerio’s were blamed for their part in the killing also.

The reality is that we all live in a world where violence occurs, be it depicted in media, or sadly for some an issue much closer to home. It is not video games that are the issue, it is the pressures of work or school, the feeling of being lonely, the concept that life is not going to get any easier and that the only way out is death. It is the lack of family support, the mental state of many troubled, the dangers of drugs or family upbringing or being abused. It is all of these things, and none of them. It is a much deeper issue than video games, yet it is so very easy to blame them. WE are responsible for our choices, as was the Virginia tech killer; HE chose to murder so many people before taking his own life, not the video game.

As the (formerly) late, great Buffy Summers once said before moving to UPN “the hardest thing in this world... is to live in it”.

Olivia P