It is one of the unfortunate truths of the world in which we live. There is evil. There is violence. There is a desperate search for meaning in them both, and there is ignorance shared by all with none who accept any responsibility for the way things are. We search for answers, but the search is never in our own yards. The search is always on someone else, something else or someway else… never on the persons, things or ways that we ourselves associate with.
The tragedy of the Virginia Tech atrocity goes well beyond what happened at the school. We mourn even more than just the innocent victims of the crime… we are left also to mourn the way things are. We are forced, yet again, to face the reality of the world we live in, to acknowledge that we do not live in a Utopia where “I’m ok, You’re ok” is a valid philosophy of life. And it seems our natural human reaction, is to look for who is to blame. We want a fall guy. One person, thing or “way” that we can lay the blame down for all the horrors that we see around us.
The desire to find causes behind that which is wrong is a nobel one. A culture shouldn’t just turn a blind eye to itself decaying. But the tragedy continues when no one really wants to find the answer… we all just want an answer that doesn’t have anything to do with us.
So here we are still just days after the incident at Virginia Tech and we’re rushing trying to find answers. By now all of you have probably seen the picture of the bastard who did it, holding up a hammer, almost resembling an image from the film “Oldboy”. You’ve also seen and heard people rushing to wonder if the movie itself (or violence in modern media in general) is to blame. Some people who already have a political axe to grind are jumping at the chance to point the finger at Hollywood and Video games. “Movies made him do it!” they’ll proclaim and cry out. “Watching a man kill other people in a movie is what pushed him to commit his crimes”.
The absurdity of those statements is obvious. Just another example of someone wanting to point the finger at anything other than themselves and what they do, who they are and how their ways may have been contributing factors. It’s just safer to point the finger at Media for them, because then they’re not implicated in anyway by extension or morally. Pointing the finger is a safe thing to do.
But wait. Just as there is an unfounded, self serving rush to point the finger at “Oldboy” and violence in media, there appears to be an equally unfounded, self serving rush to dismiss the idea that the media we consume has ANYTHING to do with it, or had any part to play. Movie and video game fans have been summarily rejecting the idea for the same reasons other are endorsing them. Self serving, safer to point the finger somewhere else other than on ourselves or the things we embrace or believe in.
No one seems to want to put any real thought or consideration into it. “Just blame violent movies!” or… “Violence in movies have NOTHING to do with it!” We think we want answers… but the truth is we only want answers that already fit into our existing world view. Anything outside of that world view we dismiss instantly without thought or consideration.
Here’s an example of what I’m talking about. What I’m about to tell you is probably the funniest thing I’ve ever seen in my life:
A couple of years ago i was living in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Canada and Marilyn Manson was scheduled to come to town for a concert, and that got a lot of the locals upset. It was a city wide controversy. So one day the local News had the reporter going around on the streets asking people what they thought of it… now this is the funny part…
He comes across this kid (probably about 17) dressed all in black, white makeup covering his face with dark eyeliner, hair long, oily and dyed midnight black. The kid was surrounded by 3 or 4 other teens dressed in the same manner. The kid looks into the camera and says “No I’m not influenced by the music I listen too. That’s a stupid question”.
At first I thought it was a joke or that maybe the kid was being sarcastic. But he was serious. He really 100% honestly believed that the music he listened to had ZERO influence on him. He was completely oblivious to the fact that it influenced even the most simple things such as how he dressed (not that there was anything wrong with the way he dressed), how he formed his appearance (not that there was anything wrong with his appearance) and even the people he hung out with (not that there was anything wrong with the other teens he was hanging out with). The music he listed to didn’t influence him at all? It influenced just about EVERYTHING about him that could be observed. But he, like most of us, stuck his head in the sand so never to see any truth or validity in things that don’t already fit within our own world view.
Did violence in movies and video games have ANYTHING at all to do with the tragedy at Virginia Tech? Personally I don’t think so. However, I do think in our long hard search for answers we shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss the idea or reject at least the discussion…. just as we shouldn’t be so quick to point fingers at it and blame the media. Both the extremes embrace ignorance.
We all need to be open to the idea that maybe violence in movies and video games had absolutely NOTHING to do with this tragedy. We also have to be open that MAYBE it did in some way, shape or form. When something as real and horrible as this comes along, we need to be willing to set aside our already emotionally invested points of view and just honestly look for answers. That’s hard. That’s tough. That hurts. And that’s why no one will actually do it.
But it just goes to show you once again… no one really wants real answers… we all just want answers that comfortably fit into our own personal existing world view. Anything that falls outside of that we label as just evil… or nonsense.
Oh well, enough with the reality. I’m off to the movies.
