Jack Thompson (hide your games!)

[the dark side]

Prelauncher. i quess i should have used a different word to evil, its just, i dont know what other word to use, i only see things "in black and white" i cant differentiate the shades between good and bad, and being a christian (albiet one who plays horror games, i find it fascinating that one of the most unchristian genres is also the one that uses the most biblical themes) evil is the only explanation i can understand.

i didnt know about that discover actually, ive not been keeping up with science lately, so, when i say born "evil", because thats they way i understand the world and cope with it, in reality, all that "evil" is, is a chemical. that is interesting, it can certainly explain why even the glittering towers can produced a crazed thug when there are no environmental or social factors present that more sterotypically produce a homocidally angry youth. a fascinting discovery, can you link me to any futher reading on it please, i need to catch up.

i know all too well humans are not born equall, if we were, we would all be Neurologically tyical, and im about as far from that as alpha centauri is from paris.

on bad parenting raising criminal youth, again, i have a slight problem there, that is very true in the majority of cases, yes, children from loving homes often go on to be placid, loving and normal people. and most "thugs" come from broken, violent, homes, yet, in the london riots, some of the worst rioters came from loving middle and upper class homes, and ive known people from some of the most broken and violent council estates, kids who have been kicked around like a football by there parents to become loving, intelligent and humanitarian individuals, one i knew became a decorated police officer, another, a Social worker.. i know these are rare inversions on the normal, but, i feel they should still be explained, as "normal" is a dirty word to me, an elitist rule of thumb governed by the majority.
Because i am "different" from "normal" i was considered by many of my peers at school to be "subhuman" and a "target", im no less normal than any of them! im probably more normal because im not sick and twisted, (you have to be sick in the head to get pleasure out of someones suffering) i was just considered ab-normal because i behave differently, due to genetic factors, to the "normal" majority, so i like to ignore "Normal" and focuss on the rare "non normal" cases, as those are the ones, i think, if explained, could really be the key to cracking what truly makes humanity "tick".

Religion could be an explaination, perhaps ive been saved from becoming violent and disturbed by my strong christianity, but then again, Religion, when Misinterpreted or twisted by powerfull individuals, can lead to a form of mass violent insanity, as seen by islamic fundamentalist terror groups.

As for polotics, well, im personally pretty conservative, Queen and Country, lock all the blighters up, etc. what the americans would term "white fence"

Freinds is also a good explaination, it certainly explains "gangsta" culture, even i can see how that feeling of being popular is appealing.

i am familiar with maturity phases, i will admit that around 15, i became somewhat rather communist! i immersed myself in Mao and Marx because i liked that idea of "equality for all". as i got older, i saw it was even more flawed than the current system and turned my back. i never got on with punk or any music that is "anti establishment" though, due to my abhorence of real life violence, many anti authority cultures are extremely violent, but i quess i can see how an aetheistic human being without the moral encoding of religion could be drawn into it more, especially the lowest classes, who are often taxed into oblivion and feel somewhat supressed by the rich elite who run the country. in the same way i get angry about being "squashed" in favour of the COD loving mainstream in gaming, i quess they get angry about being "squashed" by the rich. they want revenge, that they want to do some "squashing" instead. anger does lead to irrationality, and true, maturity does come into it, were as an angry adult is liable to just write a rude letter to the person who has angered them, a child, without the self controll of an adult, will just strike out at what has angered them, i quess the angry youth are incapable of gaining the maturity required for self controll, perhaps due to that brain chemical you mentioned, as many of them go on to become even angrier adults.

you mentioned mental health, again, i am sorry to use myself as an example, and im not shooting your theory down, in fact it seems very plausible and is probably quite close to the actual truth, i have a mental age of 11 (immature) and im not all that well mentally, suffering from autism and having had more than one nervous breakdown in the past due to being the victim of bullying at school wich has also lead to episodic depression, when you consider the number of years i have played 18 rated violent videogames (i was playing duke nukem 3d aged 9, like most of us here) i should, theoretically, be a raging homocidal maniac, yet, i find real life violence completley abhorent, i dont even like the idea of harming a spider. so, im not too sure about the maturity, school, and mental health aspects of the equation personally.

what i find truly fascinating is, for every theory, there is an equally strong counter example that pretty much blows it open, i quess that might explain why videogames are so often scape-goated as the cause of these horrible massacres, as many people are impatiant, and they want an answer "enn oh double-u- now!" and are not willing to wait for scientists to sift through all the therories and counter examples and finally crack the human brain and explain it, so, they just got for a fast and easy explanation, as, people, understandably are frightened (gang culture for example, wich is over-running our cities, terrifies me personally!), and fear breeds anger, they need a target for that anger, something that is quick and easy to pick on, and gaming is it, as sadly, it does seem that these people who do go totally crazy with a gun, All play violent videogames, making them a quick and easy scapegoat.

sometimes, i despair of humans, i really do.