New at Reason

Julian Sanchez | February 21, 2006

Justin Peters reviews a new book that explains why years of playing Grand Theft Auto haven't turned him into Charles Manson.

Comments

|2.21.06 @ 1:12PM|#

Try Killing Monsters - Gerard Jones. I thought it was pretty strong.

|2.21.06 @ 1:50PM|#

when kids play, they should play like children, not like gangland assassins

So kids in a Lord of the Flies state of nature are better off than those playing video games. I love public officials.

|2.21.06 @ 1:54PM|#

So he wrote a book trying to refute fallacious argument ad nauseam with an equally fallacious argument ad antiquitatem?

|2.21.06 @ 2:27PM|#

In "Tom Sawyer," Mark Twain closes the description of the Missouri townsfolk at Injun Joe's final rites with "And they had almost as much fun at the funeral as they would have had at the hanging."

|2.21.06 @ 3:01PM|#

Someone wrote a book about a video game? That seems like an anachronism to me.

|2.21.06 @ 3:06PM|#

Sorry, I didn't make myself clear, and somehow managed to delete the first two sentences:

If you think violent 'entertainment' is new, read some books from the 19th century. In "Tom Sawyer," . . .

By the way, I don't think Mr. Clemens was arguing in favor of public executions.

|2.21.06 @ 4:30PM|#

A professor at West Point wrote a book telling us not to teach kids to kill? Isn't that what they do over there?

|2.21.06 @ 6:09PM|#

Now what we need is a book on the psychological function of "moral crusades", i.e..what do the ninnies get out of it? What function does it serve in society?

Larry A|2.21.06 @ 11:11PM|#

My personal nomination for most dangerous modern media philosophy are the violence-lite stories like the remake of Charlie's Angels, where if you just throw enough kung-poo you can save the world from arch-villans without, you know, actually injuring anyone.

|2.22.06 @ 2:17AM|#

Now what we need is a book on the psychological function of "moral crusades", i.e..what do the ninnies get out of it?

My guess, it's the smug satisfaction that they get that somehow, someway, they have exerted power and dominance, no matter how great of small, upon another person or persons, particularly those who you somehow find disagreeable.

Never underestimate the lust for power mixed with hate and it's role in making political and social decisions.

What function does it serve in society?

Besides target practice? None.

|2.22.06 @ 5:26AM|#

years of playing Grand Theft Auto haven't turned him into Charles Manson

My understanding of Manson is that he was a pretty terrible criminal, if you consider all the itmes he got caught and the high percentage of his life he's spent in jail.

If I was inclined to worry about crap like the effect of video games on soft, malleable brains, I might worry they'll become more proficient as criminals from all the extra practice they get, kind of like fighter pilots using simulators. But I incline towards the Alfred E. Neumann persuasion on this kind of crap.

|2.25.06 @ 3:27PM|#

History shows us that after Dr. Wertham's crusade against crime comics succeeded, viloent crime, war and all sorts of violence disappeared from American society, right?

Kevin