Fake Realities (I)

Fake Realities (I) - Today I'm starting the first of several sub posts as I feel this time now is of considerably challenging quality with quite a few issues approaching us like a massive avalanche. First of all, let me say that I am gradually getting quite upset considering all the recent school, university and mall shootings in this country. What the hell is wrong, I feel like screaming out ever the more often! The majority of shooters are either mentally too far gone in their little quirky, delusional and distorted maze- like worlds or just can't resist following the urge of committing suicide in public places plus taking other lives as well. As incredibly sad as this is, what really ticks me off though is the usual outcome of one and the same discussion whether most of those mentally havocked kids might indeed have been exposed too much to the influence of violent video games. Every time this issue is tentatively brought back to our all attention, it is usually recklessly shattered again with no differing results. I'm getting sick and tired of this pretentious ignorance with which this problem is playfully disarmed and brushed off as merely coincidental and singular incidents! - Just the other day my hubby and I were scouting out the by now rather impressive range of different kinds of Play Stations spanning from X- Box to Nintendo, Wii and several others, as we were interested in the diversity of games and programs in general. Holy cow! The few samples displayed there on site struck me as so eerily realistic that it truly took me a couple of seconds to convince my brain that what I was seeing was purely fictitious. I am an adult who grew up with an entirely different set of games which had been created to supposedly stimulate young minds in a positive and constructive way. Looking at this vast array of scarily realistic games nowadays, I in fact can't help perceiving some as dangerously mind- altering. As far as I am concerned, I've got no intention whatsoever to get sucked into a fake world that feels so wickedly real. A young and not yet fully developed brain, however, is much more vulnerable to deception and fake realities than an older one. Seriously, isn't this a no brainer? Anyways, if the heroes and heroines in games like these appear that close to reality in regard of looks and demeanor, how easy must it be or rather become to start engaging in virtual chases, target practices, hunts, shootings, and even mass killings? Personally, I do feel that the line between fact and fiction is slowly watering down to nothing this way. What's more, I also suspect the permanently over- the- top build- up of thrill and stress in these games leading to a total depletion of adrenaline over time which ultimately leaves a regular or gambling addict numb to the natural inhibitive excitement preceding events that are clearly out of the ordinary such as getting pumped and psyched up with respect to committing a dreadful crime in person. Well, as long as the simple fact that violence on TV as well in Play Station games is of solely negative influence and thus of crucial impact on primarily young and male brains is arrogantly ignored or stubbornly played down, shootings like these will triple and even quadruple and gain in severity and brutality. We must stop pretending that this outburst of senseless violence and aggression is just a natural contemporary social disease because it is simply not! Something as apparently man- made and above all totally unnecessary could be alleviated fairly easily by banning violent games altogether for once and all. But, of course, this is nothing but wishful thinking because just like with cigarettes, drugs and alcohol all those fat profits are simply too hard to renounce and will therefore never be given up without a fight. As long as there are folks out there that - after thorough brainwashing- insist on jobs in these fields not to be lost at any rate, I sadly won't be able to spot any signs of change on a broad horizon of potentially fantastic, healthy and fruitful decisions for all of us.