Today a frustrating concept came to
mind, considering the suffering and pain in this world –
specifically, that wrought by one human upon another. The Boston
Marathon bomber was found rather fast, and his demographic was sadly
what I was expecting: nineteen, white. Several images flashed to
mind, most of them of the way violence is portrayed in the media.
Then I hit a roadblock; surely CNN and Fox news do not portray
violence in a good light. Thus, I cut out a great portion of people
from my search; most people's perusal of the media ends with the big
news outlets. Let's say 25% of America only sees violence in a
negative light – the elderly, executives, and more sensible of the
population (of which I don't count myself part of).
I then further delineated the sources
of “positive” violence – comic humor is often slapstick (though
the sickening violence portrayed often is dulled by the artist's
brush), video game action gets more and more graphic with every new
generation of gaming, and practically every major television pundit
has humor many would deem unwise to display on their network.
Another clarification was then needed;
what separated me and the roughly 330 million Americans from the
small amount of horrifying monsters we call murderers? All of the
examples I brought up are engaged with by millions of people an hour.
So, I further narrowed the reasons for this violence – certain
media outlets are far more edgy than others – some I don't even
know about. Now we're getting closer to a source of this.
I recalled back in 2009 a game, Call of
Duty: Modern Warfare 2. I didn't enjoy the series, so I didn't buy
it. I hard stories of a certain, unrelated part of the game (fully
passable, no achievements or glory for finishing it) which had you go
through an airport murdering everyone. I saw a friend play it, and
was pretty well mortified for the first thirty seconds. The scene
begins with you and six of your allies walking into a pretty
well-crowded checking area; twenty or so people were between you and
the metal detectors, all in a jumbled mess, with no real order. As
your weapons become visible, and for the instant before your allies
open fire, the game silences everything,
and everyone's face has a conglomeration of horror and confusion.
Then the slugs start burying themselves in the first few people,
piercing through into the next people behind them. As the screams
erupt, I noticed a child falling to the ground with blood spurting
into the air. The next minute and a half my friend walked through the
airport, destroying hundreds of people. The music was intense, and
your allies were hurrying you on, talking about a deadline to make.
I
couldn't keep watching it. My friend kept playing, and I was
horrified. I asked him how, and he responded, “it's just a game...
this isn't real”. And it hit me: for 330 million people, it's just
a game. Most of this world can separate the game from reality. But
that game sold over 10 million copies. The way people share games,
I’d say this game has been played by over seventy-five million
people in America. I bite my nails in concern over the five or thirty
people who cannot see the divide between game and reality – whose
lives, effected solely by their willing isolation and indoctrination
by a media unaware of its effect, find no divide in their only
experience with the world (violence and immortality of the player)
and the real world which the media mocks.
“But
JHBlancs, you're being a parent. Video games don't make people
violent, there are other factors! Leave video games alone, man.”
(read: let me be comfortable in my denial.)
My
friend, You are probably alright. I'd guess the demographic that
reads my blog would be the demographic which would not commit an act
of violence. I'm not even saying that video games are the only source
of this condoning; it is in the jokes between people, in the humor
over this world. Violence, when the catch is made that “nobody is
harmed permanently”, is hilarious in this day and age. This
generation finds a thrill in the escapism of the game and the humor.
It is when the very few decide to enact that humor in real life that
people back up, look at each other, and call him a monster.
And
that is the crux of the matter. It is the small bit of monster in all
of us, the once-in-a-blue-moon monstrous behavior that finds its way
through the darker channels of the internet and media to these
potential murderers. It is the cold shoulder we give to that one
random person, and 99% of the time goes nowhere. But that 1% of the
time, the rejection sticks with the person.
So
where to go from here? A bomb seems to have set this country askew; a
spray of bullets did the same thing last December. Through all of
this, this world seems to be coming less stable; as if the violence
perpetrated in our own lives sinks into the soil. Iran suffered a 7.8
magnitude earthquake; China just got hit with a 6.6 magnitude an hour
ago. The vegetation recedes as deserts grow. The life of this planet
seems to be choked out by the inevitability of climate and the
stubborn advance of humanity.
In
this darkness, oh could there shine a hero?
Yes.
You. Me. We cannot change the Earth's attitude, though we can change
the people's. We can show that a bullet will not change this world,
nor will a bomb. An Earthquake will not shatter the soul, though it
may break the bone and body. So how do we effect change?
In a
word, grace. Do not let the evil push you to apathy. Do not let the
hatred in this world bring you to nihilism. Stand firm against a wave
of hate, meet rage with open arms and kindness. Find the broken, and
show them a firm foundation. Be the change you want to see. You don't
even have to be Christian, just be humane. Don't honk the horn when
you're angry; don't ignore an angry face; do not leave debts
unsettled; do not ignore a person going through hardships; do not be
apathetic.
Just
because we're broken does not mean that two or three people cannot
operate together to become a force for good. With a God behind us, we
can change the world. Or, if you wish to do this without one, then go
with a group of friends and show kindness to strangers. Either way,
the challenge of our generation is to shine kindness in a world of
dark hatred.
