are violent video games ruining the youth of tomorrow

[Chrissi]

I am noticing a theme in this thread.

"If the parents raised the children well, the children won't be messed up."

"People are responsible for their own actions. Everyone can make good decisions."

I would like to cite the example of Phineas Gage. Phineas Gage is a guy who lived about 150 years ago. He was a typical hardworking, responsible, kind railroad construction worker who was well-thought of by everyone he knew. He had a high status at work and a good social life.

However, he was involved in a freak accident at work where an iron rod blew through his head, probably destroying most of his prefrontal cortex. He recovered and was perfectly normal, able to go about his life unimpaired except for one thing - he was no longer the same person. He wasn't kind, well-mannered, responsible, and well-loved anymore. He had become an extremely irresponsible, bitter person, who was prone to losing his temper.

He made lots of bad decisions. He couldn't work anymore. He cursed a lot, when he never did before. He was violent, whereas before he was quite docile. It basically destroyed his life, his personality, and his ability to make reasonable, responsible, and rational decisions.

This case is often cited in psychology, and should really be causing many of you to question what causes people to behave in stupid ways. I know lots of people who were raised by bad parents and turned out to be excellent people. Then again, there are those whose parents practically killed themselves over trying to resolve their problem child, and the kid is still terrible.

I'm not saying it's entirely within the brain. I'm saying you can't blame either environment or mental capacity. I think they both work together. Everybody's brain is kind of different from everyone else's, and these variations can sometimes make for an aggressive or a docile person, a responsible or an irresponsible one.

But who's to blame? The person? Think about Phineas Gage. Is he to blame for his actions? He was a great guy who developed a terrible personality out of a freak accident. You might say, no, it's just really sad. Phineas Gage was awesome, and it's none of his fault that that happened.

But then, if a person is born with brain damage similar to what happened to Phineas Gage, can we keep blaming them for their irresponsible/violent behaviour? I guess something has to be done.

I think we need to stop looking for people to blame and start looking for ways to resolve problems.

If we say "Oh it's all the parents' fault, you can't do a thing about it unless you are the kid's parents", well, even if that were true, it makes things simple, but it doesn't resolve a damn thing. If it's all the parents' fault, what can we do to help? Nothing? That isn't useful at all. Why are we blaming the parents when we could find the real root of the problem and attempt to solve it? Similarly, why blame video games? We need to actually find out what makes people tick, instead of blaming everything around us.

Accurate statistcs might help too.