We're all a bit addled PT.1

I bet that you are a fine human being. I'm sure that I would get on with you quite fine were I ever to meet you, or at the very least we would agree that it is best to be civil in our brief exchange with each other. Hell if you were to pay I'm sure we could even stand having a pint or two with each other. 

You as one person, a lone individual, are fantastic.

Unfortunately people, note the plural, are all a bit addled, bonkers, and crazy. They get together and their fear, ignorance, and every other feeling or idea they have becomes contagious.

They allow themselves to be riled up about things not worth getting riled up over; often they allow individuals who aren't as fantastic as you, individuals who are crazy or evil, to get them riled up over those things not worth getting riled up over.

In an effort to stem the tide of this collective insanity I want to drop a bit of my individual rationality into the mix. I want to yell over the din of fearful voices and say, "Enough! Everybody stop, calm down, and think for a second."

This is what I'm going to try yelling over tonight.

The short of it is that Fox News doesn't like a new hyper violent game called Bulletstorm which was released a few weeks back. They trot out a series of "experts" who claim that this game could dramatically harm a developing child, or that this game and many like it can be linked to an increase in rape. Violent video games, movies, and music merely teach children behaviours that they can mimic. Mimicry isn't the concern though according to the "experts", rape is, murder is, and abuse is. How though will any form of violent media turn children into criminals destined to commit the aforementioned acts? If a child becomes violent he is disciplined, and is so disciplined until he understands the offending behaviour is unfit. Good parents will set a proper example of what it means to be a decent human being. Really good parents will sit down with their children and talk about violence they see in various media. So if we can raise our children to not become the things they view in the media then what is the real issue here? It's the fear people have of violence itself and what violence can do to them.

Why fear it though? Violence is not evil, it's not a living being hell bent on turning our world inside out. Violence is merely a tool, a tool of good and evil men alike. Violence is a part of our reality, it's a part of  our very biological make up, and until we evolve further it will be a part of us we can never just sweep under the rug. We shouldn't just try to sweep it under the rug though, we should each endeavour to understand it. The fear that violence provokes in people is fear coming from a lack of understanding of violence.

Let's try an analogy to better frame what I mean by understanding violence. Think of defensive driving, what is it? It is a set of ideas and techniques that teach us to be keenly aware of the road. This awareness helps us to prevent harm to ourselves and prevent or mitigate the damage to offending driver(s) when something unfortunate does occur. Defensive driving in the end does much more for drivers than simply saying that dangerous driving is bad, because the reality is that there will always be bad drivers. Through understanding the task of driving becomes less daunting.

So goes it with violence as well, we can't change the fact that violence is naturally destructive, and we can't change how violence will be used by evil men. What we can change however is how we deal with the destructive effects of violence, and we can change how we deal with violent individuals. If we teach ourselves and our children how violence works, and what the moral and ethical implications of violence are, then we can ensure that when violence is used against us we won't cower in fear. Instead we can ensure that those who misuse the tool of violence are the only ones who suffer from it.