The Scoop: America has become one giant bull’s-eye
When thinking about the sniper, and all the innocent people who have been senselessly murdered, the harsh reality is this is exactly what America has been asking for. And I hate to be the one to say so.
Want proof? Just look at what we call “entertainment” in the greatest nation in the world. We think it’s cool to pay $7 for a movie ticket to watch people be killed — by the dozens. We play video games where real-life graphics show — in painful detail — bad guys being shot and blood splattering from their bodies.
The rash of sniper killings has not only paralyzed the Washington D.C. area with fear, it has also delayed the release of the major motion picture “Phone Booth.” Why? The plot of “Phone Booth” centers around a sniper threatening to kill a man in a phone booth.
Sound familiar? It was just last year the film “Collateral Damage” was delayed four months because it too closely resembled the Sept. 11 tragedies. Film executives figured the movie-going public wouldn’t embrace a film about terrorists blowing up innocent women and children after absorbing the real thing.
Our society is beginning to imitate the so-called “fantasy world” portrayed on TV and in the movies. The violence our children experience with Play Station 2 doesn’t necessarily end when the game is over.
My suggestion: We need to take a long, hard look at the motion picture industry and all the graphic violence splattered across virtually every movie produced.
The popular response: This is America! We have the right to watch people shot in the head if we want to!
My suggestion: Repeatedly killing life-like figures in video games eventually has an impact. It desensitizes people to violence. After hours in front of the TV, it makes shooting seem almost commonplace.
The popular response: Mature adults realize the difference between right and wrong. Anyone with a solid head on his shoulders (and how many people do you know who fit that description?) understands video games are just video games.
But are video games just video games when one of the games is called “Silent Scope 3” and involves, according to game information, a sniper “hunting down” the enemy? Hmmm. This sounds terribly familiar.
Is it really a wise idea to allow a video game called “BMX XXX” to hit the market? The game involves graphic sexual content and also contains, you guessed it, a “Sniper BMX” mode. Is anyone beginning to see a pattern?
All this brings me back to my original statement: America is getting exactly what it has asked for. And it’s not only confined to murder and mayhem.
We’re bombarded by sexy celebrities flaunting skin every night on prime time TV and are surprised so many married couples are unfaithful. We want violence, violence and more violence when we go to the movies, but expect that sort of aggressive behavior to halt the second we leave the theater.
We open the mailbox to find seven credit card offers then wonder why so many people are filing for bankruptcy. We allow our children to play video games where they kill as a computer-generated sniper, then scratch our heads when a real sniper guns down people on the street.
We are, if nothing else, a product of our surroundings. If our parents smoke, we are more likely to smoke. If our parents attended college, we’re more likely to attend college. And if we take great pleasure in watching Clint Eastwood shoot people, it doesn’t take Einstein to figure out why the bullets are still flying long after Clint leaves the screen.
For U.S. violence to ever begin to settle, we must put a collar on entertainment violence. Quite honestly, it’s not nearly as entertaining when a sniper is murdering real people with real families.
(James Clark is editor of the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].)