V-Tech vs. Vindictive, Vociferous Vehements
(This is a bit dated, but still appropriate in my opinion)

“The problem with today’s youth and their violent outbursts is [____*]”

*Violent video games
*Violent movies
*Violent music
*Violent society

Please. Passing off blame on any one source as a hope for retributive justice is a sad attempt to justify actions that are obviously far beyond the reaches of pop-psychology, Dr. Phil, and angry bystanders.

Man is a fallen creature…and if you can prove me wrong that man is fallen and depraved I would love to hear it.

People have, within them, tendencies that will take shape in some form or another. Some sue any and every establishment they can. Some destroy lives for monetary gain. Some use people to no end and destroy them emotionally for the rest of their lives.

And some bring guns to school.

There’s this theory called the Cumulative Case. You know how hardcore Christians think that if they can prove the unreliability of one thing, like carbon-14 dating, that they can disprove evolution?

Once more….please.

Look at ancient society. They didn’t have movies, video games, underground rap, or any of the new “blameworthy” causes of the destructive nature of man. Instead they had the Coliseum, Circus Maximus, witch hunts, killing of the un-subservient slave, and any number of means to enact their horrible inclinations to take down human life at any chance they got.

Case 1: You can likely find a common thread of video games, etc, among every single school shooting. But think about it. Most of them are young males. You will be hard pressed to find ANY young male who has not been bombarded with these every-day (though modern day) parts of our society. How can one possibly say it is one of these factors?

Case 2: Compare this to the epidemic of obesity. Sure, you can blame it on the ease of fast food, latchkey kids who don’t have adult supervision, lack of exercise due to growing entertainment that involves no physical activity. Does that mean these factors are to blame? No. Sure they contribute, but there are SO many factors that play into it.

The Cumulative Case theory says that you have you take all available factors into account and then apply them to the current situation to make a case. Family, influence from friends, a screwed up psyche, or a myriad of other possibilities. Put them all together and you have a case.

I’m sick and tired of blame being put on anyone and everyone but those who deserve the blame.

Jeffrey Dahmer, one of the scariest cases of a psychopath in our recent history, has some of the most eloquent monologues about how he considers his actions:

"Something stronger than my conscious will made it happen. I think some higher power got good and fed-up with my activity and decided to put an end to it. I don't really think there were any coincidences. The way it ended and whether the close calls were warning to me or what, I don't know. If they were, I sure didn't heed them… If I hadn't been caught or lost my job, I'd still be doing it, I'm quite sure of that. I went on doing it and doing it and doing it, in spite of my anxiety and the lack of lasting satisfaction… How arrogant and stupid of me to think that I could do something like this and just go about my life normally as if nothing ever happened. They say you reap what you sow, well, it's true, you do, eventually … I've always wondered, from the time that I committed that first horrid mistake, sin, with Hicks, whether this was sort of predestined and there was no way I could have changed it. I wonder just how much predestination controls a person's life and just how much control they have over themselves."

Oh yeah...definitely the fault of video games.

Irrational as his actions were, they were rational to him at the time. How can people not understand that man is a fallen creature that acts upon selfish, irrational, and extremely motivated means?

If the V-Tech Killer had not shot himself…if he had gone to jail…if he had gone to death row…the whole case would be extraordinarily different. If he had come to “justice,” there would be little debate taking place.

People are screwed up. That’s all there is to it.

Are the extortionists, identity thieves, tax-evaders, and heart-breakers any different? Hardly.

The more we blame everyone else for our own mistakes, the more morality, ethics, and consciousness lose ground where they should be flourishing. There is right and there is wrong, otherwise this tragedy would not have struck such a chord with the American public.

It’s time to stop accepting faux-causes and taking away blame where it belongs.