Jack Thompson seems to be one of those people that knows he is the smartest man in the room. The problem is, he’s an activist. Activists, by definition, have an agenda. And nothing blinds someone to facts and other opinions faster than having an agenda. I have two main points to make about this, else this will not be brief.
I am one of millions of gamers who has never, once, committed a crime. Ok, that’s not entirely true, I have been convicted of a few minor traffic offenses, was accused of a felony for which you are guilty until proven innocent, and obeyed an unlawful order once resulting in the commission of a crime. I have never committed a violent crime. For statistics sake, let’s look at all of the other “risk groups” to which I belong.
I’m male. I play violent video games. I have training in the martial arts. I own firearms. I was deployed to combat zones in the military. I own a rottweiler. I eat red meat. I read comic books. I watch R-Rated movies. I’ve seen porn. I carry a knife.
Except for the combat zones and the rottweiler, all of these were true when I was a minor. As a teenager we had a pit bull and a shar-pei (Chinese fighting dog). I fit the typical profile of a serial killer. According to the methodology of Mr. Thompson, I should already have murdered about everyone I’ve ever met. I have not done this, not even the ones who deserved it.
Why have I not destroyed the world? Maybe because I was raised with a strong sense of personal responsibility. I, and no one else, am responsible for my own actions. I am not allowed, by my philosophy, to blame anyone else for something that I did. How did I arrive at this, my most strongly held belief? My parents, who provided me with access to violent movies, books, games, firearms, pictures of naked women, and beef, the most delicious of all animal products, did so with the moral fortitude to be involved in enough of my life to make sure I understood that I would be held accountable for everything I did for my entire life.
Point Two:
The last line of Mr. Thompson’s “humble video game proposal” is probably the most telling about his motives. His words: “Jack Thompson is a Miami lawyer who has for 18 years been involved in efforts to stop the marketing of adult entertainment to minors.” Because of the nature of his crusade I surmise that video games, in his arrogant opinion, are for children. I have seen this thought process many times. Comics are for children. Animation is for children. Video games are for children. Puppet shows are for children. Read Queen and Country, watch Heavy Metal, play Playboy: The Mansion, see Team America: World Police, and tell me that any of these were designed for consumption by children. Every one of them was written by adults for adult audiences. Every one of them was made available to the public with the assumption that adults, not children, would be enjoying them.
Medium of transmission does not ever make the message targeted for any particular age. Video games, movies, and TV shows have ratings. Those ratings determine at what age the customer is regarded as having developed enough judgment to decide for themselves whether or not s/he may partake. Comics, magazines, and books do not have ratings. Yes, some comics and magazines carry a sort of rating or warning, but there is not, yet, an across the board standard. Every seller of these I know does their best to keep mature audience material from being distributed willy nilly to minors.
If a child commits an act of violence, it is the child’s fault for committing the act. If the child lacks the moral compass to determine what is right and wrong, it is the parents’ fault for not installing it.
