Pick An Easy, Slow-Moving Target

So here we are, perhaps not surprisingly, with George W. Bush and Al Gore riding that media violence horse as hard as they can. And why shouldn’t they? Can we deny that it’s a real problem? Perhaps not. But can we also deny that this issue is an easy, slow-moving target which spells easy pickings for candidates who are trying to ply voters with the “family values” ticket?
The video game ratings system is a recent invention. And, to be fair, let’s not kid ourselves – the self-imposed ratings, assigned not by a third party but by each individual company to its own products, do not work. I’ve seen stuff given “E” or “KA” ratings that I would’ve placed much higher on the scale. The ratings are a joke.
And parents, not yet accustomed to the rating system, aren’t paying attention to the ratings. What the kids want is what the kids get. The parents do have the right to say no. Even if the ratings were administered by a third party, they’d do little good if ignored as often as they are today. And the obvious ineffectiveness of the ratings system as it is now has probably prompted consumers to ignore most of the ratings on game packaging. It becomes a vicious circle.
So, are there problems? You bet there are. But is this a make-or-break election issue? Not by a long shot. Will Bush and Gore try to make it such an issue? Almost certainly.
Then again, these are the same two candidates who can lock horns for a full day of their campaign over allegations of subliminal advertising.
The violence issue spreads far beyond video games. Movies (why is it that clips of The Matrix seem to be most prevalent in TV reports on this issue?), music, and television are also included.
And if, somehow, someone on Capitol Hill rubbed their magic lamp and solved all of this, they would not solve the problem, for the values reflected in these media are the values of our society, not vice versa. I don’t dispute that the media can influence impressionable individuals, but a society and its values exist before a media infrastructure exists. Spousal abuse is rampant in this country, especially in the southern midwest, which I sometimes reluctantly admit is my home. Is this because we have video game or television characters who beat the hell out of their wives and kids with no apparent consequences? Nope. The state in which I live has the nation’s highest number of home-brewed methamphetamine labs per capita. Do we have meth-smoking video game characters who get away with their drug use scot-free? Nyet.
A society creates its media. And those media cater to what that society wants. We live in a testosterone-soaked culture that glorifies and rewards violent behavior, as much as we like to condemn it verbally. Personally, I’ve blown away many an enemy ship, or even enemies on foot, from the safety of my television screen and joystick, for over half of my life. But do I go and behave this way toward the world around me? Do I beat up, threaten, or kill people outside the door of my cozy little electronic world?
No. Because my parents taught me better than that. These days, your average couple with kids is working frightful hours, probably to maintain a lifestyle that’s a little too rich for their blood to begin with. Some of that may be because the kids keep getting whatever they want.
I spent a lot of time playing Odyssey 2 games with my mother, who found them hysterically funny and a hell of a lot of fun. In later years, I spent a lot of time flying solo on the Atari (and later, various computer platforms). Still fun, but not as much fun as impressing another real live person with your skills, or ribbing them for their lack thereof. I know which I preferred. Break out that second joystick anytime for me. Families can play these things together, and if Mom or Dad is there, even if you’re sitting around the Nintendo playing Perfect Dark, they are in a position to explain the differences between fantasy and reality. Between right and wrong. Between justified and unjustified violence. The same goes for movies, TV and even music, though I realize that Mom and Dad may not be quite ready to sit through an hour of Marilyn Manson or Nine Inch Nails.
Perhaps, before the Democratic and Republican campaigns seize upon video games and other forms of entertainment as their latest demon to be exorcised from the wholesome heartland of America, and before they praise family-friendly sponsors for pulling their advertising from violent television programming… perhaps those same parties, and their candidates of choice (we’re just six weeks away from the election, and you’re telling me that these two goobers represent a choice?), should think twice about having, oh, say, The Rock of WWF fame appear at their conventions.
Getting the vote is all about giving people what they want, while sometimes saying something entirely contrary to one’s actions. But sadly, one of these two nitwits running for the highest office in the land will almost certainly be sworn into that office in five months. And they’ll continue waging their token war on such easy, slow-moving targets as the media.
But they’ll continue ignoring the real question: what can be done to solve the root problem (the violence), and not the symptom (the media’s portrayal of it)? And if you actually believe that Al Gore or George W. Bush will have the answer to that question any time in the next four to eight years, I have a fantastic deal for you on some very cheap vintage games. You see, there’s this landfill in New Mexico…and I’ll even give you the shovel…

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