Violence

[Der Freischuetz]

BlueberryJoy

This is going to be long. mrgreen I am verbose. You have been warned.

I believe there's two major reasons for the escalation in violent crime.

1) A breakdown in discipline. I'm not THAT much older than you guys, but back when I was in school, corporal punishment was legal, and still given to unruly students. In the assistant dean's office back in junior high, there was a large wooden paddle up against the wall, in plain sight of anyone who walked by. The paddle had holes drilled into it to make it swat harder. It was...an effective deterrant, for most ill-mannered brats. eek

Go into any school nowadays, and where's the discipline? There is none; it was outlawed years ago. No longer can school administrators hold that particular Sword of Damocles over the heads of kids, so they run wild knowing the worst that can happen is suspension. They get little to no discipline at home, then they do as they please in school.

This discipline I'm talking about is systematic. The example I chose was school, but it's across the board. It's commonplace throughout our society. People are 'out for theirs', they'll get it any way they please because they feel entitled to do so, and damn the consequences to others.

2) Poorly managed anger. This is a cousin to the 'breakdown in discipline' problem, but not entirely the same thing. It used to be that children were taught the 'right way' and the 'wrong way' to deal with angry feelings. This is a valuable life skill, and unfortunately, it's vastly undervalued. Remember 'time outs'? Counting backwards from 100? Deep breaths? Somewhere along the line, we as a society forgot how to deal with our collective anger, and as a result we get pandemonium out of it.

What happens when someone is angry, and they don't know how to manage their own anger in a mature manner? One of two things, actually. The first kind of reaction of poorly-managed anger is the immediate one. This is where you find screaming outbursts, cursing, striking out, and road-rage retaliation. scream

The other kind of mismanaged anger is the quieter, but far more frightening kind. This is the person who stews for days...months...even years. Lives their life with the anger boiling just below the surface. And then one day, they walk into school, work, or home...with a loaded semi-automatic rifle. sad And you know the rest. It's in the papers all the time.

Right now, we're seeing a combination of both of these phenomenon break down the very foundations of our civilized society. Things 'seem more violent'. Of course they are. But that's just a symptom, that's not the sickness. At least in my opinion.

Thanks for the soapbox. wink

I agree. More discipline is needed in our society.It seems like people are afraid to discipline these days for fear of "scarring" the person. Society has lost the backbone it once had. Why are we even considering trying to rehabilitate almost every form of criminal? Discipline is what should be used to keep the masses in line.  

[AliasL]

Violence is basic human behavior, that we haven't been able to give up right now. We needed to fight to survive back then, and because of the way things started and the basic instincts we have, we may never reach world peace. Violence is needed and unneeded, depending on the situation. If people still act violent, we must deal with it calmly, but we must not be violent back. That will only encourage further violence. I believe that anyone who has great determination can control themselves. It's your mind, not your body that controls you. You have the choice to stop violence. We all have the choice to stop violence. But it will always remain.  

[idontknow512]

Violence is a common unchangable habit we humans have adapted. It has no certain cause and medias or relatives shouldn't be blamed. The human himself should have the sense to make sure he resisit temptation from any sort of violence.  

[lazyduck123]

i agree medias and games only give ideas of how to cause violent acts of killing meaning games like manhunt for example it only tells the gamer how to kill people...nope no relation at all........  

[NOCTVRNVS]

Well first of all, that's total bull. Video games TELL kids how to kill people? Yeah right, like any video-game-playing pencilneck nerd could pull off the stuff of video game protagonists. Not that anything in "Manhunt" or any other retarded violence-based game is realistic in the least. These games are the way they are (Grand Theft Auto, all the crappy clones thereof...) BECAUSE that's what kids want to play. Not because they make kids violent.

Anyway, if you believe there is more violence today than there was in the last generation or any generation past, you have been fooled. Please show me how there is more violence in the 21st century than ever before. There isn't -- in fact there's far less. There has been so LITTLE violence in the past decades, in contrast with our very brutal history, that any small act of violence seems like a catastrophe. Meanwhile, none of what happens today would even be FLINCHED at 400 years ago. 911? Nothing compared to what the Romans or VVikings could do in a day. Herr Hitler bless his soul is LOLing right now at anti-war activists who think IRAQ is bad. Capone himself pulled off more grand crimes than all of these little nippers who call themselves "cripz" PUT TOGETHER. We are a pathetic society. You can't even protect yourself anymore. You can't shoot somebody under any circumstance. The hippies in office won't stand for anyone's independance and we are supposed to think that we live in a violent, turbulent time where guns are bad and used only for evil.

The only difference in violence NOW, is that crimes of a violent nature are often cowardly and disrespectful. But this is just an inevitable change that American society underwent through the breaking away from tradition. If we all had guns, who would DARE use theirs against another knowing they would be doomed to the same fate right then and there? If duelling was still authorized we would not be fighting over possessions in our homes and in the street.

And I hate to say it, but there's a certain demography that is responsible for WAY more crime than they should be for their numbers. I'll give you a hint, 90% of people getting arrested on Cops are in this demography.

Remember that saying, you can take the monkey out of the jungle but you can't take the jungle out of the monkey? People wonder where the violence is coming from. How naive... they call big cities the "concrete jungle" but it's much worse. In this jungle the monkeys have guns.  

[Melancholy Demon]

ok first,

violence is inherent, cause well nature is violent,( carnivors not thats not violent,lol) and if it isn't? where did it come from the aliens, and for you lunies out there where did the aliens get it?

next there will allways be violence because you need discipline to keep violence in check, ex: the paddles the teachers used, well thats violent. and look at what has happened since we removed that inhuman punishment? well violence has floureshed in its stead, if we try to remove it it comes back bigger and badder and bites us in the a**.

third, video games and tv, not a cause so much, if little billy got bullied today he's not going to stew about it for years, no he is going to go home and blow a grunt's head off and bash an elite's skull in, and he will be relaxed because of it so he also won't imeadeatly blow up in the bullies fase either the out let makes people more relaxed and thus not as easily set off, same thing with telavision.

so basicly we need to find tolerable middle ground , cause we need confuntation, wh wants to listen to a bunch of people agreeing?thats boring, if you don't agree, well then your either not postingorreadng this or wrong cause your argueing(can't spell) in this debate.

please share your thoughts
MD  

[Melancholy Demon]

did i actuly end this discusion? some one please comment dose any one a gree or disagree? i'm up for critisicm(need to learn how to spell  

[Efstathios]

Nah, I just didn't feel like restating what NOCTRVNVS said.

He pretty much said exactly what I would've, I might've made it shorter though.  

[Melancholy Demon]

ok cool i just felt the need to add on to what he said, cool we're all on he same page(relish the moment it is a rare one)  

[Efstathios]

Haha,

Yeah, it kinda is.

Nifty ^_^  

[Israk]

Violence is a natural occurence, from animals fighting over a mate, to fighting over their territory, humans just took it to a new level with technology, once again ruining nature's balance.  

[Shadow__Dweller]

Israk

Violence is a natural occurence, from animals fighting over a mate, to fighting over their territory, humans just took it to a new level with technology, once again ruining nature's balance.

I agree.
I don't think violence is caused by tV or video games...violence started with nature. I think that tv and video games CAN influence people...but I don't think that's the fault of the video games...it's the stupidity of the person who is influenced by it , and goes out into the street and tries to shoot someone because they just watched an action movie. I thoroughly enjoy shoot em up and action games and movies..I don't enjoy movies that don't have violence in. When I know violence isn't real, I love it...when it IS real...that's completely different..  

[Kalathma]

Violence, ugh. It's rather a matter of opinion and a matter of values, is what it is.

I absoloutely hate how, now, everything must have rating. You must have a parental block. You must monitor your kids. You must now have to know what your kid is doing right this second. You must have a location tracker on your kids cell phone.

Violence can not be blamed on anything but the kid's brain. If a child is playing a video games, yes, it may give him ideas, but how his brain interprets it, depends on if he'll actually become like that. I say, we should put that kid in a ward for interpreting it against the moral values of society. [But, who says they are correct?]

Yes, it's true violence has escalated, but what can we really do to stop it? If we take away all televisions, computers, video games, ect. do we really know if it'll work?

[[I've no clue if that made any sense to you, but it seems fine to me... sweatdrop ]]

 

[Weazel]

Edit

Yeah, no one is gonna read this... lol rofl

In this post I am quoting and commenting on several of the posts from the first page. I could only get that far before responding due to a tickling urge in my stomach

MarineManiac

I couldn't have said it better myself, I totally agree. As Homo Sapiens we are violent by nature only because we are technically animals. Animals need to hunt, protect and ...dare I say... have territory. You can still see our animal nature everywhere. Regular mothers are still protective of their children (bear), people still like their space (wolf/dog), and we all need interaction (birds/etc.). As Homo Sapiens we are classified as animals.

Like the dolphin we are one of the smartest in the kingdom, like the bear and lions we are protective of young ones, like birds we need interaction to survive.

That's what I believe and of course teevision and video games have helped a little but not by much. It just takes one ignorant person to mimick James Bond. Or try to be the next 'person of da hood' and bring in the guns to keep people of his turf because of Grand Theft auto.

Last time I checked Grand Theft Auto was based on gang and mob situations and not the other way around. Just because someone found a way to profit from a fictional but mature situation doesn't mean the game should be blamed.

If that was the case after you've decided to censor all the video games, television, movies, and books we'd most likely end in a situation resembling a required piece of literature within schools today called "Farenheit 451".

Quite frankly it's rediculous to say someone shouldn't play a video game with a gang life story line. The only reason you look down upon this is because it actually resembles aspects of real life. Buildings look like buildings, cars look like cars, and people look like people. If the creators of Grand Theft Auto and 007 had used characters that were robots or fictional monsters these titles wouldn't be called into question. If you have such a hard time detering yourself or your children or the people around you from commiting acts of violence after playing one of these games then you should seek medical phych evaluation.

Furthermore the mannerisms you've compared between animals and humans and decided were the same aren't. They might resemble the animal acts, they might even be identical if seen side by side, but ultimately they are only the same in that moment, that single instance. The reason for a wolf needing it's space or territory is not the same as a human's reason. Humans can not be defined solely by their actions as an animal can be. We can understand humans and even question their reasons. Nature is not violent in an unneccessary way, nature is violent because that is what is needed to survive.

icecurb

sure vidio games and movies of the violent sort are a influence on everyone. Almost any action around you has a influence on you weather u realize it or not. weather or not violence has escalated it has become more known to us thanks to the media. please tell me what story are you going to choose as a reporter, "man stabed and brutaly beaten on bus" or "New baby at zoo". because of the media almost always choosing violence over the lil baby bears all we see on the news is voilent stories and the weather (witch also can be violent) so i belive the media is a great factor in violence.In america the amount of violence has decreased in the last decade but the coverage from media had increased by 300%

hobbs (well known philosipher) belived that man is born evil. i do not agree to this cause the world wound be in a much uglyer fate than what we know
locke (well known philosipher) belived that man is born good. I belive this is more true than man being born evil due to the fact that mor people are nice and not naughty..

but has violence increased since the 1900's, i dont think so

Seriously, you mean to say that you believe that violence is linked to the good or evil morallity of a human. That's religious propaganda. You can't define good or evil for an extended period of time so you can't say violence is evil. A hundered years from now violence could be a necessary part of living and wouldn't be considered evil.

Now the statistics of violence being covered in the media more could be true and violence as a whole being less than the decade before, but what point are you making here exactly, I can only interpret this because it's not an actual statement, just a combination of loosely connected facts and your own words.

So I'm assuming that you mean to say that violence isn't up, but the severity of the violent crimes is and the media is covering violence more often and in high quanity. The media covering this is simple, population is increasing, and it is continuing to increase. As the population increases there are going to be more people committing crimes that will be covered by the media. This is typical of highly populated areas.

Then there is the statistic that crime is down. Well this might not be true either because once again population has increased, there are just more people not committing crimes then there are committing them and compared to statistics of the previous decade there appears to be a lower amount of crime now than then. This is just a simple manipulation of numbers, charts, assessments and census to make communities feel safer and cause them to continue to strive or maybe just a mistake that wasn't caught in time. Violence isn't down, and whether it is up is extremely difficult to determine as well.

fluteboy1992

Video games and television is probably what has escalated violence in society today, but some acts of violence is due to people's acts of vengence, the excuse of "backing a religion", racism, war, conflict.... there many reasons to random deaths, but the best thing to do is to try to maintain peace as we have been doing for years. There's really no alternative...

Once again somene who needs to actually make a point.

You sound slightly like a hippie (no offense intended) but hippies didn't get a consistant message of peace across. I don't think preaching peace is going to help. Now maybe if you tried to actually make something other than a generalization on the topic, that might help.

Once again violence in fictional can not be blamed for the violence within society. Society is in charge of society not media and media creators. If they were I'm sure we wouldn't be living with as many freedoms as we are today. So stop blaming the media.

Now the other acts of violence you mention can not be summed up as "vengenance". Vengenance isn't a reason to attack someone because they aren't the same skin color as you, there is no intelligent reason for that. Vengenance is the concept of an eye for an eye and a life for a life.

You can make reference to the war if you want, that's the same tactic the gov't uses. Mention Iraq they won't care what you say anymore as long as it's something along the lines of "bring back the troops" or "the war is pointless"... You are not validated for reapeating something everyone else says.

SoccerSuperstar100

I believe violence is caused by how you're raised and what you watch on TV. These days there are more and more violent movies and I believe that really has an effect on people. Some of the movies and shows on tv give people the idea that violence is cool and sometimes even funny which causes them to become more aggresive or violent.

Fine I'll give in a little bit to this concept. In the extreme case that someone was raised surrounded by "senseless" violence and were only allowed to watch fictional situations containing violence and violence related situations then yes that person would respond with violence.
Though I'm not sure how many people have endured this situation though I know many kids are abused and they tend to inherit those abusive tendencies or at least use violence to vent themselves you still can't just say it was T.V and Video Games. If the kid played a game or watched something that involved nothing but violence but was loved to the best of the parents ability, most likely the kid won't be violent. So your sometimes has been exaggerated as it is more Seldom than anything else.

tatterkin

We are becoming more and more de sensitized to violence through the media, TV and video games.
Part of why I think this is because parents seem to be paying less attention to what there kids are doing now.
Some by using the Tv/ computer as a convenient ‘ baby sitter’ but never paying attention to what they are exposed to.
I'm not sure if video/ computer games have got more violent in context, but the increased realism blurs the lines between reality and escapist fantasy.
Humans are aggressive and violent naturally this possibly disposition is present in all of us. Society / environment controls and influences this nature.
I’ll illustrate my point with something that scared me slightly, ever heard of the game San Andres( have I spelt that right?) I saw a bunch of 8 year olds playing it( one of them owns it, with his parents consent).
The way that they acted when they put this game on was almost like a personality switch, it came across loud and clear it brilliantly cool that they were smashing someone’s head in with a hammer .It was good fun that they were hurting someone and seeing blood pour out of them.
I believe this game has a certificate aged 18s and over on it.

I'm not sure how mentioning the situation of children playing a game with a violent nature proves that it's the vidoe games fault, realism or otherwise. You said yourself the game had an age warning yet the parent bought it for the kid, because they I.D when buying anything labeled that way. And then after seeing the kid play it they continued to let the kid play it. Sounds to me more of an issue of bad parenting rather than a violent video game causing children to be violent.

So they reacted to the game in a different way then they would in real life, a "personality switch", once again that doesn't support your point that defeats it. They reacted to the game as if it was fiction, and they were enjoying that they achieved a goal within the game because children are taught to feel happy when achieving goals. Just because they aren't the Brady's doesn't mean they aren't just doing what they were taught. I'm sure this reaction would be the same if "Pacman" was the coolest game out there and someone just made it to level 19.

But really, you are just riding a fence here, you mention parents ignoring there children and that's why they watch the violence in games and t.v. but instead of just directly blaming the parents you act as if the game has some sort of fatal purpose to cause children to become cold blooded killers. It's a game, it's not real, make sure your children know that, if they can't understand that, don't let them play it, if you have problem with them playing it, make sure their friend's parents know.

And you can't blame society, because it's a parents fault if a child is introduced to certain aspects of society. If you don't wan your kid to know what meth heads are like, keep them away from meth heads. If you don't know where your kid goes after school, well then you're failing as a parent and need to disipline your children, if you can't, give them to the state!

Children are given choices to make, not all the choices. Control your children because they are children, don't let them control you!

Stop blaming someone else and ignoring the moral responsibility you have accepted. Teach your children, or your friends, or your neighbors, whoever it is that is influencing kids the wrong way. Stop keeping quiet about it if it disgusts you and then complaining about it later. It's only hypocritical to tell someone to do something you won't do yourself and pointless to think that if you tell everyone else something is wrong that it will change the world.

 

[Melancholy Demon]

Weazel


2 words

thank you

you basicly said what i was thinking only
i was way to lazy to type it all out
you made a good many important points
i particularly like the what are video games based on
and the reasoning behind why humans are violent as to why animals are

I liked those 2 in particular