Liberals and Video Games
In this wonderful article, "Reality Bytes: Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked", Dr. Henry Jenkins,Director of Comparative Studies at MIT, rips into eight commonly-held myths about the ill effects of video games.IMO, this is just what we need to be hearing more about! Especially given that Hillary and Joe Lieberman have introduced the rather Orwellian "Family Entertainment Protection Act". Ugh.
Aren't liberal supposed to be against censorship? Aren't liberals supposed to be more into moral relativism, which would suggest that it should be up to the individual (or, in the case of the aforementioned witch hunt bill, the parents of the individual) to decide what is appropriate entertainment, not the feddy gov?
Or do I just ask too many rhetorical questions?
Schmoliticians, am I missing something here?
posted by Josh Glover @ 12/13/2005 12:31:00 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
I am ambivalent: one the one hand, parents should be parenting and not relying on the government (or schools, or retailers) to protect their children from "harmful influences"... on the other hand, media/videogames/TV/Internet have grown so disproportionately powerful and influential that it seems parents could use all the help they could get. And, for the record, that stuff that's in modern videogames really pushes the sex/violence/decency envelope. Rape, gangland-style murder/executions, torture, etc. To me, that's pretty horrific sh*t we're giving to adults, much less children.
Point of interest for you Josh: Tipper Gore was the spokeswoman for the Congressional committee on music censorship that resulted in the "explicit lyrics" label in the late 80's to early 90's (you probably already knew this, but I have random knowledge that must be rotated out from time to time). It is ironic that the party we associate with personal freedoms has historically pursued censoring our mediums, but what party isn't playing both sides of the fence? As far as the matter at hand, I have mixed feelings about video game censorship. I am an avid gamer . . . pause for laughter . . . and as such I have played pretty much ever genre of game you can imagine, including all of the Grand Theft Auto titles, which are the most demonized of all the game franchises for their gratuitous violence, sexuality and profanity. Clay and I had a heated debate about a year ago regarding this matter, in which I defended the rights of the programmers to design and the consumers to purchase these titles. That having been said, I purchased the fourth installment of the GTA series, and, quite frankly, I was ashamed for having done so after I logged about thirty minutes of play time into the game. It's beyond violent, beyond abrasive, and below any form of gaming entertainment. While I, like many others, find this to be true, I do not want the government to tell me I can not own or play this game. It is prudent to tighten the distribution and marketing of these titles, with the intention to create real barriers against children getting their hands on these titles. But imposing outright censorship is something I will never support.
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