Keepbro Posted April 30, 2014 Share Posted April 30, 2014 ^^ I hope people will realise that I am not trying to take away their video games first of all. But I am going to be devils avocado here so bear with me. Yes this is a huge difference between video games and real life. But the problem is always people. Think in terms of temperature. If you were always hot then how would you know if something was lukewarm? If you were always cold then how would you know if something were tepid? If you suddenly were introduced for the first time to something cold (if you were always hot) or hot (if you were always cold) how would you react? Now imagine that you lived in a bizarre alternate reality where EVERY form of artistic medium was horrific murder porn. Every magazine that you flicked through - murder porn. Every book that you read - murder porn. Every video game that you played - murder porn. When you were advertised your favourite brand cereal it was always "Try new Honey Nut Loops - they're Murderpornalicious." How would you act when you first asked a girl out for a date? How would she act? Would horrific murder porn be something considered mundane? Or would it still be horrific? Would this alternate bizzaro universe have a high rate of gruesome murders and some extremely questionable top shelf material? I think yes. Coming back to reality : the problem as ever isn't art but people. People get wrapped up in themselves and weirdly seem to voluntarily put themselves in this artificial reality of whatever floats their boat. It might be murder porn or violent video games. It could even be Zombie games. But the point I am trying to make is whether people like it or not art DOES affect people. It could even help turn them into vicious killers. Obviously there's not a single book or film that every one who watches instantly goes and kills someone (that would be an awesome Japanese horror film) but whether people like it or not their pattern of life and what makes their psychological make-up means that art WILL cause some people to pull out knives and stab teachers. As someone who has spent most of their working life doing advertising I am completely aware that you can influence people with art. You can even influence them into being either killers or passive to the idea of killing. Don't fool yourself into thinking that people wouldn't kill because of their interpretations of art. There are a thousand examples of this in history. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kajin Posted April 30, 2014 Share Posted April 30, 2014 The alternate reality you described doesn't work because we have no established baseline for how people in that reality would actually behave. I'd go so far as to say that the people in this alternate reality are ultra pacifistic to the point of everyday violence being a novel concept. Something unknown that would be explored in media because it's different to the world they live in. I'd even suggest that, if you were to slap such a person, that they would recoil in abject horror because the very idea of violence occurring outside of media is a completely alien concept to them. A person is either predisposed to violence or they are not. The people who are not make up the bulk of the population. If artistic medium of any kind was really capable of making normal, violence opposed people into killers, then the world as we know it would already be destroyed. Books, movies, television and video games are more popular than they've ever been. People are exposed to the idea of violence literally every day even if only in passing. Our media is just so steeped in it the only way to escape everyday exposure to violence in media is to burn every single piece of electronic equipment you own and live in a cave. I will accept that some people can and will be influenced by media, but these people are the outliers. They are the people that are already violent in their nature and consuming such media might set them off. Or they might be messed up in the head and have a hard time distinguishing fantasy from reality. But the vast vast vast majority of people do not fall into this category, and as such are simply not influenced by it into violent action. Using media to influence someone to buy a purse or a sack of potatoes is a far cry from getting them to go out and commit violent acts of murder. Sure someone might make jokes about killing someone for a Klondike bar, but joking about it is different from actually doing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keepbro Posted May 2, 2014 Share Posted May 2, 2014 Our media is just so steeped in it the only way to escape everyday exposure to violence in media is to burn every single piece of electronic equipment you own and live in a cave. Cave paintings? What if you have a murderporn cave painting? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitt Frostpaws Posted May 2, 2014 Author Share Posted May 2, 2014 Our media is just so steeped in it the only way to escape everyday exposure to violence in media is to burn every single piece of electronic equipment you own and live in a cave. Cave paintings? What if you have a murderporn cave painting? Then lead the way! I've got the baby wipes and hand cream ready! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
123Imirish Posted May 3, 2014 Share Posted May 3, 2014 Germany here OMG IT'S ANGELA MERKEL and the entire German population, I'm feel truly honored to be in your presence Angela *tilts head with obsessed psycho fangirl smile* *holds knife to cheek* Wanna hear about the list of medication my late doctor put me on for all my 99 problems? Just kidding, welcome to the fourms Enigma, Rathlord, Kirrus please don't ban me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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