Evil - cntd

Thinking on his post last night, the Gorse Fox may be accused of focussing on the one aspect of American culture - gun ownership - as the sole cause of the tragedy.

That would be simplistic, and people more learned than the Gorse Fox will analyse the tragedy and spin their results one way or the other.

The Gorse Fox suspects that investigators will find that the perpetrator of these deeds was an addicted game player - spending much of his free time playing immersive "shoot-em-up" computer games. These, GF has no doubt, are corrosive and over time they blur the boundary between virtual reality and the real world. No doubt some psychologists somewhere have sold the souls to prove there is no causal link between violent computer games and actual violence. The Gorse Fox disputes this, and makes the following points:

• If these games have no impact, why do people leave action movies feeling "pumped" and "buzzing"?
• If these games have no impact, why do people waste billions on ad campaigns - do advertisements not work the same way?
• If these games have no impact, why to kids get so stressed when told not to play them?
• If these games have no impact, why do they have age restrictions?

If you spend hours on end in front of a big screen, fighting and killing everything you come across, with background sound effects and music re-inforcing the experience, then surely you become inured to the concepts of violence and death. Indeed, in a weak minded individual, with no moral compass - it may become what he perceives as the norm.