Sunday 18 October 2015

Blame the objects, or blame the people?


(Doom is copyrighted in 1992 by id Software)



One thing I see a lot of with more "left-wing" views (at least, using American terms) is that when problems occur, they tend to blame the tools by which the problems were created, and not the people themselves using them.


This, in my opinion, is very dangerous, and it can only lead to hardship down the line. Want to know why? Because you are attacking the symptom of the problem - and not the problem itself - and when you do that, the problem itself will always find a way to manifest again in another, and even harder to control way.

Some examples of this are blaming video games for school shootings - instead of poor parenting. Blame the guns used in said shooting - instead of the trigger-man who's firing them. People go so far as to go after the companies who make these things - when those companies clearly are not at fault.

Here's a little anecdote for you - and don't worry, it ties all together later on. The European Union has actually been trying to stop the United States from using their manufacturers' drugs in lethal injections. Bear in mind, we're talking about state-backed killing here - yes, executions. Who are we blaming for these executions? The prisoner himself? Maybe. The prisoner's victims? Hopefully not. The state? Maybe sometimes. The prison themselves? They're the ones doing it, so it would be the logical choice. The companies who manufacture drugs to these prisons? Hardly an afterthought.

The whole point is - the medicines are just a means to an end (pun not intended). Their manufacturers are barely an afterthought and often never even talked about. In fact, they themselves are often even patsy to the whole process - they have no control over how their drugs are used after they've been purchased, and often have very strong objections to how they are used.

So, let's face it - yes, many corporations are evil, heartless, money-grubbing bastards who don't give a crap about the people or the environment that they affect. However, sometimes even the most "heartless" seeming corporations may have a whole lot of heart. And if any shred of you is slightly human, it's never fun to find out that something you've made has caused anywhere between ten thousand to a million deaths. Imagine being the CEO of those drug companies. Now try to imagine being a CEO of a gun manufacturer. Now - try to imagine being the CEO of a simple video game company. You get where I am going with this?

The problem is - people like to blame anyone or anything but themselves for their problems. No one likes to take responsibility. And many people have never learned to. This, right here, is the root of a lot of these problems. This is why there are school shootings, suicides, church massacres, gangs, and even serial killers. Our own society is responsible for these things, and it's not because the tools are available - trust me, you can kill someone just fine without a knife or a gun - it's because no one cares about the people using them before they get used - no one is telling these people - this is wrong - they will not come back - you are wrong - and killing is wrong. Parents let their kids run rampant on video games without properly educating them about life and death. They let their kids run rampant on video games without ever explaining how precious a human life is. And instead of blaming themselves, they blame those very same video games. Shame, because they are among the best and most interactive forms of expression and art, and there is nothing wrong with them at all.