PPR (quasi-) Game: Acceptable or Reprehensible?

Post Reply New Topic

Basic training in 1944 is hardly comparable to today. I never made it into combat and I have no egrets. And I am not the average guy and never was. And perhaps the average guy is not the standard to deal with. How many guys like ruveyn are there who want to exterminate a hefty portion of humanity and what does playing make believe violence do to them?

It probably satiates their desire to kill so many people, simulated violence does take the tension out of life. Do you have a similar opinion on violent movies?

There are all sorts if violent movies and some indicate the horrible and unforgivable results of violence and some exult in it. It depends.

That was my whole point. The character exists before the media is experienced. It will find its outlet regardless of mode of entertainment. Brutus didnt need to be literate or particularly worldly to develop the character needed to murder Julius Caesar.

Character is vulnerable to all sorts of influence at different stages of development. Very young children are very amenable to parental and institutional influences. At puberty young boys, especially, are easily led into violence and young soldiers indoctrinated in the aspect of war which classes anyone who might be an enemy as having no humanity worth regarding as worthwhile (which is a standard ploy of all wars) can be persuaded to do frightful things to people with very little difficulty. Apparently I was rather mature at 18 and killing always horrified me.

Ruveyn, even today, cannot really imagine the instant horror of Hiroshima (perhaps he never read the book by John Hersey) and I regard him as intelligent buy almost totally lacking in normal human compassion. It's a frightful lack and can be developed by various sources. Shooting people as mere targets is one way and the military is well practiced at this. Nevertheless it is characteristic of veterans who have actually been involved in this to be mentally injured for the rest of their lives.

If it's a characteristic of veterans to be mentally scarred, yet is it not a characteristic of gamers to be, then is it not possible that the people who play these games recognize the difference between a simulation and reality, otherwise they would also be scarred?

That has nothing to do with accommodating people to the act of wanton murder. Read this http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn04092010.html

Ah, conspiracy theories as proof now? People being able to recognize reality in contrast to a simulation has nothing to do with gamers not being mentally scarred versus some veterans being mentally traumatized?

I never claimed gamers were mentally scarred. I merely pointed out that repeated encounters with situations encouraging murder, fictional or otherwise, accommodates people to the actual commission of murder. Most people probably do not actually proceed to murder but it seems likely to me that a significant number do under murder permissible environments such as war.

So you are suggesting then that police and paramedics, are at greater risk to commit murder? These professions are exposed to environments that desensitize and promote violent solutions to situations.

Other professions that are desensitized to violent death are autopsy pathologists, forensic scientists and morticians. You might also include butchers too.

But in fact the people attracted to these professions have a predilection towards enjoying these things. If your theory were correct, we would see an increase in interest in certain professions. Nobody becomes a mortician just because they need work. You need a certain je ne sais quoi to persist in that industry. A certain zeal for your work.

Instead, I suggest that there is a stronger link between intelligence and a propensity to commit crime. Rather than restriction of media, efforts should be made to enhance education and knowledge.

Do police and paramedics play lots of violent computer games? How should I know? Why para medics? Yes, police. Dealing with dead bodies is quite different from killing people. That is a rather odd association.

"Nobody becomes a mortician because they need work" Indeed your mind works in grotesque pathways. How do you know that?

I fully endorse education of the right type. There are all sorts of types.

Do police and paramedics play lots of violent computer games? How should I know? Why para medics? Yes, police. Dealing with dead bodies is quite different from killing people. That is a rather odd association. [/quote]

Because paramedics find themselves in the thick of things, so to speak. A little thinking on your part would have led you to this conclusion.

They are witness to pain, gore and death and become desensitized to it. A significant number of accidents happen at other accidents, so typically a paramedic is witness first hand to deaths as they happen.

People get run over by rubbernecking drivers at the scene of auto accidents. Right in front of paramedics. People arrive home and find their loved ones murdered or dead by suicide and they sometimes freak out becoming violent. I was once administering first aid to an injured man(before the medics arrived) and his upset friend approached and threatened me.

I worked for a few years at the periphery of the lives of police and paramedics. I met new ones and watched them descend not to violence but alcoholism, and indeed, these are the leading problems of police and paramedics.

My day job at the time took me to peoples homes, and I ended up encountering police, paramedics, and even gang members homes the day after I dealt with them in my night job. It was not those, but the poor, desperate and alcoholic drug addicts that threatened me. People that didnt read much, had no TV, and certainly didnt play computer games.

You'll find that the statistical bump of violence from players-of-games is drowned in the violent noise of substance abuse and poverty. But that doesnt sell newspapers to middle class people, does it?

Because I am an aspie and I often need work. How grotesque, right?

I didnt actually enter that sort of work but I looked into it when I considered starting a sole proprietorship as a cleaner of crime scenes. Most established cleaning companies will not deal with cleaning up suicide scenes. That leaves only the family to clean up, right? Despite seeing some awful things during my night life, I figured out that I didnt have that special whatever to handle such a task. No wonder cleaning companies wont do it.



How vague. I suppose you recommend waking up and going to bed also?

I accept your superior experience in the matter of contact with violence but wonder if the motivation to commit violence is increased when one witnesses it. It seems to me to be quite a different thing. Virtual violence would transfer to actual violence by creating the attitude that the similarity of virtual targets to actual ones is enlarged and the sensitivity to the consequences decreased. whereas, with your experience of the horror and tragedy in real violence should, in my estimation increase your sensitivity and decrease motivation to commit it.

The word education includes all sorts of things and is, by nature, hugely vague.

The police are a very special area. As in any sequestered disciplinary group they naturally align themselves to a large degree in separation from the public in general and they are always under pressure from people who utilize violence. Their own safety is usually an important factor in their operations and the tendency is probably to to use more force than less and absolutely be intolerant of any challenge to their authority. I do not blame them for this as it is the environment of their profession but it certainly can provoke unnecessary violence.

I thought this thread would be wider than what you guys are rambling on about. =.=

Is it acceptable or reprehensible to go fishing without a tackle-box?