Glenn Ralston (gralston@in.net)
Wed, 6 Oct 1999 12:13:21 +1300
From: Glenn Ralston <gralston@in.net> Subject: Re: "Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill" Date: Wed, 6 Oct 1999 12:13:21 +1300
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Pembroke is quite right to focus on the
limitations implicit in the legal
qualities of negligence. And, perhaps the
greatest value in "Stop Teaching Our
Kids to Kill" is the common reference we can
now refer to by examining the
source material for the citations such as
"...it is hard, if not impossible to
irrefutably prove a pure correlation" (p24),
or, "Since 1982, television
violence has increased 780 percent and in
that same period teachers have
reported a nearly 800 percent increase of
aggressive acts on the playground"
(p26).
Individual moral responsibility, as our
culture defines it, is at work here. How
our leadership examples frame these issues is
culturally critical. My paraphrase
from past discussions here as "...by the
rules of empirical research we cannot
(have not been able to) determine" our proper
course of action inappropriately
diminishes the importance of the outcomes.
If, as I surmise, media violence is the
chloroflourcarbons of our society, then
even lacking "absolute truth" our society can
take organizational steps to
protect its interests. Perhaps a "violence
tax" on media could ameliorate what
has become no less than a cultural assault on
our schools and their innocents.
Glenn Ralston
Environmedia
<gralston@in.net>
<http://home.earthlink.net/~gralston/index.html>
Marc Pembroke wrote:
> I'm not certain of the context of the passage Glenn Ralston quoted:
>
> > It seems especially disturbing to me that
> > some academic theorists may unthinkingly
> > exaggerate our
> > reasonably cautious civil liberties posture
> > by asserting intellectual inhibitions along
> > the lines that
> > "by the rules of empirical research we cannot
> > determine that savage videogames (electronic
> > training?) cause violence, so, then there can
> > be no assigned or assumed responsibility."
> >
> > Glenn Ralston
> > Environmedia
>
> However, such statements are quite common when attempting to assign or
> assess responsibility of one person's acts for those of another. More
> particularly, I think the question is whether one can hold a video game
> manufacturer or seller liable for violence which a user of the game
> perpetrates.
>
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