[Leica] Violence (was: An unpleasant print mention)

[Dave Munroe <dmunroe@hpvclmn2.vcd.hp.com>]

Ted Grant wrote:

> So what we
> now have is a seed planted in the mind of some Internet twithead for
> another reason to "go shoot somebody!"


It's all Shakespeare's fault.  Murder and nastiness; his work
should be banned.

But, seriously, the "seed planted in the mind", which is not
a valid explanation for psychopathic behaviour anyway, does
not result from words spoken to a normal person.  Kids don't
*seriously* think about killing other kids merely because
they saw a movie or because they read a phrase in a photography
magazine.  Kids, or anyone else for that matter, must have
lost a sense of moral values, of right and wrong, of the value
of life, and a conscience.  This loss does not originate from TV,
movies, or comic books.  My friends (I'm 46) and most people
I know have seen plenty of horror movies and shoot-em-up's and
yet we have no desire to go out and shoot someone.  In fact,
many of my friends walked to school with rifles for their
school target shooting team (this was 1960's Portland, Oregon,
not some town in the hills) and yet they're not in the least
way violent because they have respect for life (human and animal)
and a sense of right and wrong.  I think the paramount difference
in American society today is that kids are growing up with little
or no parental guidance and sense of values; in the last three
decades the very important job of parenting has been given little
value in American culture.

That, and the fact that the media want you to believe that
violence is increasing by leaps and bounds, when, in fact, it
is not (it's just getting more exposure and sensationalized).

- -Dave