yup and we were forewarned:
Maybe we should look at an article written in 1969 (and violence in video games and on tv has greathly increased since that time) :
* "The U.S. National Commission on Causes and Prevention of Violence issued a statement in 1969 that concluded, 'A constant diet of violent behavior on TV has an adverse effect on human character and attitudes'." [Ibid,. p. 32] Furthermore, this study noted that the effect of violence is magnified greatly if the child is very young when witnessing the violence.
When you think of the violence of cartoons, even supposedly "children" cartoons that promote violence, you can begin to see the damage we are doing to our precious children. Road Runner and Looney Tunes cartoons are excessively violent; but, more than just violent, these cartoons give the young child the distinct belief that fatal violence will not result in any permanent harm, because they see the cartoon character falling hundreds of feet, landing on concrete or rocks, and then jumping up and resuming their life. When you couple that with the endless computer games kids play, in which they see heads, legs, and arms cut off, blood spewing everywhere, and the gravest result of it all is that the game is over, and a new game can begin, you can see how young children really believe, in their heart of hearts, that the victims of their actions will just get up and walk away.
* "Some researchers believe there is more danger in a child watching his favorite TV star commit violence on every episode than in exposing the child to gory, violent horror movies." How can this be the case? Because children will naturally want to imitate their hero or heroine and if they see them using violence regularly, the children will naturally believe violence is an acceptable way of dealing with situations in their lives. [Page 34]
* "TV violence makes young viewers apathetic to real-life violence". [Page 39] Just start counting the number of violent acts per hour in the shows you watch a lot. These authors discovered that Rambo movies averaged 161 acts of violence per hour! [Page 43]
* TV and movies impart the belief to children that no one is bound by society's rules and laws if the end result is truly worthwhile. We see this scenario played out in James Bond movies, where the hero gets the bad guys with incredible weapons and with utter disregard for the normal laws and rules of society.
* "A study of 430 boys, aged nine to eleven years, revealed that the more television violence they witnessed, the more the child was willing to use force as a solution to conflict and to perceive it as effective. Social psychologist Frederic Werthan noted that children have absorbed from the mass media an idealization of violence. 'Not the association of violence with hate and hostility, but the association of violence with the good and just -- this is the most harmful ingredient." [Page 45]
* "For years, psychiatrists have suspected that adults are as susceptible as children to TV's up or down mood effects. You are what you see." [Page 51]
* "... when preschoolers were provided with a reward they could recall and perform as much as 40% of the model's aggressive actions as long as eight months after viewing ... the period between 6 and 10 years is crucially sensitive for learning by observation. As for teenagers ... once an individual reached adolescence, behavorial dispositions and inhibitory controls have become crystallized to the extent that the child's agressive habits would be difficult to change with modeling." [Page 54]
* "The very fact that a violent act goes unpunished has the same effect." [Page 56]
* "The data suggests that aggressive habits are learned early in life, and once established, are resistant to change and predictive of serious adult antisocial behavior." [Page 56]
* "Most children watch television an average of 26 to 33 hours per week .. If he sees .. violent and abusive behavior or language, there is little hope he won't be adversely affected ... Violence is addictive" [Page 59-60]
* "Did you know that the average American child has watched the violent destruction of more than 50,000 persons on television by the time he's eighteen?" [Page 63]
* "Media violence trains victims as well as criminals [by making everyone feel insecure and frightened]. The exaggerated sense of risk and insecurity may lead to increasing demands for protection and to increased pressure for the use of force by established authority. Instead of threatening the social order, television may have become our chief instrument of social control." [page 70] Wow! Is this the reason so many Americans today, especially young adults, look chiefly to the Federal Government for help and support in so many areas of our lives? We have lost the natural fear of powerful central governments which our Founding Fathers had in such abundance; rather, we look to the Federal Government as one would look at a loving King Kong, ready to pounce upon any and all of our enemies, not thinking that, one day, he could pounce on us.
* "Violence is a staple in the American television diet. We show more violent and fewer prosocial programs during prime-time than any other country in the world." [Page 74]
* "If your eight-year-old watches a lot of TV violence, you can predict that you'll shape him into an agressive child." [Page 75]
* "Over the span of a week, children can be presented with demonstrations of how to kill or maim other human beings and animals that range from the prosaic (guns, knives, bludgeons, poisons, electricity, gas, garrotes, hatchets, drownings) to the more exotic (bee venom, boomerangs, spears, maces, spike heels). They are shown, from time to time, how to make and handle firearms, molotov-cocktails, and other grisly weapons, and often given justification for their use. Dr. Richard E. Palmer, former president of the American Medical Association, adds that television violence is both a mental health problem and an environmental issue." [Page 94]
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In 1988, Christian authors Phil Phillips and Joan Hake Robie wrote a classic book on this subject, entitled " Horror and Violence: The Deadly Duo In The Media". We quote some pertinent segments of this book, which is even more relevant today than in 988.
* "Sex on television was practically nonexistent in the early sixties, unlike today's television. In soap operas almost everybody is fornicating or committing adultery of even incest. Ninety-eight [98] percent of all sexual scenes in 'soaps' represent fornication. Nothing is off limits -- euthanasia, homosexuality, abortion, drugs, child abuse, alcohol, rape, and murder." [Page 15]
* "Violence is being presented in many forms ... we are telling society that it is okay for the good guy to use violence, however excessive, as long as he beats the bad guy. Some people, we believe, are swayed by the 'good vs evil' to the extent that they become tolerant of the means involved." [Ibid] This is indeed the case, as Americans are constantly being fed the Communist principle that "the ends justify the means". Therefore, we find it perfectly acceptable for the Rambo-type character, or the many other similar characters to kill, maim, and break just about any law necessary to bring the truly bad guys to "Justice". This principle that the "ends justify the means" is one of the two key ingredients in Communism that has resulted in the death of hundreds of millions of people worldwide. The other principle is that people are inherently good, and are made bad only by bad environment. Therefore, to make good citizens you only have to eliminate the bad influences within society. Unfortunately, most of the "bad" influences are brought about by "bad" people; therefore, the answer is to kill these "bad" people off so they cannot influence anyone anymore. Whenever you hear anyone say that people are the way they are because of a bad environment, you should shudder and shake in your boots, because the person saying that is espousing deadly Communist doctrine that has produced the greatest bloodbaths in world history.
http://cuttingedge.org/news/n1159.cfm the link if you want to read it all