Video games and youth violence

[Peter1469]

The problem is that a subset of humanity has power and interests.  How does one counter that? 

[OswaldTheOsprey]

The problem is that a subset of humanity has power and interests.  How does one counter that? 

Hard question. We have to just keep looking for an answer.

OswaldTheOsprey

[Mr. Dirlewanger]

See how waaay off topic things get, Chaos? 

Anyway, is the conclusion that monied interests create wars? As a student of history I have come to believe that wars can be enormously complex events that can't be oversimplified to fit an ideology (Marxism is this case).

[ChaosShard]

Wow. Off topic doesn't begin to describe it... but very interesting points all over the place, so who am I to fuss?

And I have to agree. Wars are complex, messy things. No one cause for any one war has ever been found, to my knowledge. (Remember I was an English, not a History, major)

But it's not video games! They haven't EXISTED long enough to cause wars. 

[Peter1469]

Wars are generally caused by rank politics: who gets what, where, when and how.  More powerful states take from others.  Emerging states gamble on gaining more power.  It is our history. 

[they call me MR. GRUMPY god damn it!]

please tell me that you two girls are not so impressionable that i with mere words might compel you to act as some undeveloped prepubescent???  are your minds nothing more than stagnant swill and mush waiting to be stirred??  KILL THEM, KILL THEM TWICE (previously kill them, kill them all) is representative of my belief that when this nation engages in war, we will/should do so in a fashion that is "total".  we will ask nor offer quarter.  we will be unrelenting and complete in our prosecution.  our enemies today and in the future will fear us for our demonstrated commitment to "total" war.  that only through our ability to wage and our commitment to exercise war in it's totality will we ensure the blessings of liberty for oz, rocky and the rest of their code pink brethren.  "honor, code, loyalty...these words are the backbone of the warmongers you deride.  i have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to those who sleep under the blanket of freedom provided willingly by those so called warmongers and still question the manner in which that freedom is provided."  at the root of every car bombing, 9-11, genocide, thug regime, brutal tyrant and world conflagration kneel the ozs and rockys of the world.  "the pacifist is as surely a traitor to his country and to humanity as is the most brutal wrong doer."     

I have neither the time nor the inclination be lectured to by a pompous and sanctimonious windbag.

OswaldTheOsprey

yet you took the time and exercised the inclination.....you just can't help yourself idiot.

I also took the time to dig up this cartoon just for you!

OswaldTheOsprey

the fact that you find truth or amusement in this speaks volumes about you.  service, sacrifice, commitment, duty, honor, code.....i wonder how many have given their lives to afford you this opportunity to belittle them?

How many died senselessly for international bankers and industrialists to enjoy cost plus contracts?

OswaldTheOsprey

then maybe you should spend your time and energy belittling them instead of the men who have given their lives so that you would not have to.......

[spunkloaf]

Grump, I don't think Ozzy is belittling soldiers.  He's belittling the institution which employs them.

Soldiers are just people.  Why would anybody want to attack them?

[Mr. Dirlewanger]

Why belittle the army as an institution? This isn't 17th century Prussia. Men volunteer for service and learn valuable skills they may very well not be able to pick up at home. Knowing what I know now I probably would have joined the army right after college. Mind you, I did not attend university for job training.

[spunkloaf]

Why belittle the army as an institution? This isn't 17th century Prussia. Men volunteer for service and learn valuable skills they may very well not be able to pick up at home. Knowing what I know now I probably would have joined the army right after college. Mind you, I did not attend university for job training.

The institution I speak of is more than just the US army.

People are so clouded.  Few people realize the big picture, because they are too attached to progress and patriotism and getting the dirty job done.

It's endless and there will never be peace.  There never has been.  We live now in a time where technology and information provides us with a chance to live peacefully, but we're attached to the past.  War IS peace.

If there is anything that HAS desensitized people, it is war.  We're so used to it, and we can justify it with almost anything.

THAT is the institution.


A further comment on Ozzy's comic, it does not attack soldiers, but it attacks the men with power who want them to fight without thinking; to kill without conscience.

[Mr. Dirlewanger]

I have to say that I disagree with the assertion that industrialists are behind wars and that the army is a repressive institution. Regarding the latter point, it ceased being a tool of repression in liberal societies after the French Revolution. Furthermore, the army used to be the way the dregs of society made a living (criminals, debters, men who ran out on their families etc.) but negative perceptions of soldiering seem to have survived albeit in a different form.

[spunkloaf]

I have to say that I disagree with the assertion that industrialists are behind wars and that the army is a repressive institution. Regarding the latter point, it ceased being a tool of repression in liberal societies after the French Revolution. Furthermore, the army used to be the way the dregs of society made a living (criminals, debters, men who ran out on their families etc.) but negative perceptions of soldiering seem to have survived albeit in a different form.

I have to admit that I have not studied history as much as you, D-wang.

Though I find history (not particularly history of war) to be interesting.


I was not trying to paint the army as a repressive institution--but as, just like the rest of us, a group of pawns.

The reason I say this is because with all this war, I find it hard to believe that many people WANT peace.  And it may sound crazy, but war is starting to look like a huge game in which countries, industries and people with power play to show their might.  But even THEY believe that it is necessary.

I guess the biggest problem I have is that I could study history, economics, social studies--everything which can provide a reason for war--and still be left burning with the question: was war necessary?  What provoked such hostility to begin with?  And the most frustrating thing of all is that nobody can ever know, because war erases the past and carves a new one.

Forgive my lousy expression.

[Mr. Dirlewanger]

Spunk, I'm not singling you out. That was just a general comment. I understand your sentiment. I don't believe there are any good wars and that includes WW2. I do believe, however, that wars are at times necessary in order to prevent the world getting any worse. The suffering and sacrifices that war engenders are not always as pointless as they may seem.


My main issue here is the simplification of human events to fit preconceived notions. For example, the idea that monied interests want war and conspire to bring it about is terribly misleading.

[OswaldTheOsprey]

Grump, I don't think Ozzy is belittling soldiers.  He's belittling the institution which employs them.

Soldiers are just people.  Why would anybody want to attack them?

Well put Spunk. My father is World War II Navy vet. I honor him and all who served, now serve or will serve. It is the internationalist establishment I hold in the utmost contempt. Thanks again truly understanding what I meant.

OswaldTheOsprey

[spunkloaf]

Spunk, I'm not singling you out. That was just a general comment. I understand your sentiment. I don't believe there are any good wars and that includes WW2. I do believe, however, that wars are at times necessary in order to prevent the world getting any worse. The suffering and sacrifices that war engenders are not always as pointless as they may seem.


My main issue here is the simplification of human events to fit preconceived notions. For example, the idea that monied interests want war and conspire to bring it about is terribly misleading.

You are probably right.
With something so complicated presented to a person who needs reason and meaning, such as myself, it is easy to construe such ideas.

Still...

I can't help but try and forget the past and seek for a better way of handling things.
With everything that we've been given in life, in all its possibilities, it always seems to come down to war.


Additionally (damn, should have started a new topic), I think there is a back-burner fear everybody has--and rightfully so--that we had better figure something out soon, or technology will destroy us all.
I think I have said it before--if there was any time humanity needed a real divine intervention, it is now.  Things are going way too fast and the tensions are way too high.

(I'm not saying God should/will save us, I'm just expressing that we ought to slow down and look at what we are doing)





It's good to talk to you D-wang! 

[spunkloaf]

Grump, I don't think Ozzy is belittling soldiers.  He's belittling the institution which employs them.

Soldiers are just people.  Why would anybody want to attack them?

Well put Spunk. My father is World War II Navy vet. I honor him and all who served, now serve or will serve. It is the internationalist establishment I hold in the utmost contempt. Thanks again truly understanding what I meant.

OswaldTheOsprey

I'm an understanding kind of guy.