So, because someone doesn't believe in "something outside of ourselves" then "life means nothing" to them. Essentially that means that you think atheists can't have morals.
Anyhow, I believe that most problems come from bad parenting and bad teaching. People are just too lazy to teach their kids right from wrong anymore.
I didn't say that they can't have morals... I said there is no foundation for their morals. It is just stuff passed on from your parents like you said. Why should you teach your kids right from wrong, and why should your kids agree with it? How do you even know what right and wrong is? If right and wrong are just whatever our culture has created to keep the human race alive, then why do we still keep the charade going if we now know there is no point to our existance?
Anyhow, I believe that most problems come from bad parenting and bad teaching. People are just too lazy to teach their kids right from wrong anymore. Not malicious... just lazy. Oh, ban "bad" video games, ban "bad" TV, ban "bad" books! Make it so there's no way my kid can accidentally stumble upon them! Because then I won't have to pay any attention to them! It's the government's job to take care of my kids! Kids aren't toys. You can't put them back on the shelf when they stop being cute. They're going to need to become fully functioning adults, and you need to facilitate that. You need to provide comfort, support, discipline, and guidance. And if you don't feel that you can do that, you shouldn't have had a kid.
Lazy teachers are just as bad, if not worse, since they're getting paid to do something that they're not doing. Half the teachers I have are either a) old people that hate kids, and no one knows WHY they're teaching, OR b) teachers in their early twenties who still have the "high school mentality," talk about booze with the popular kids, pick on the unpopular kids, et cetera. So, in all of those classes, it's "Let's watch a movie and do busywork, so shut up."
Basically, if people bothered to care about kids, we'd have lots of less problems.
This, is big truth. There's not only that, but there's also some people that lack guidance because they have been spoiled. Usually, they end up feeling like they are above the law and any morals.
Basically, in many ways, the kids aren't getting to know what "good" means and such. And then, in the end, no morals, no thought holds them up.
Eh. Majority of humans in this generation and quite a bit in the previous ones are imbeciles. What do you expect. It's like the whole thing about witchcraft. They didn't understand that it was just herbal knowledge, so they labeled it as evil. Likewise, video games are being labeled as "evil" due to sure incompetence.
First off, it's mostly the parents being bad parents. They don't pass down good, but only bad.
Second, I wouldn't say that it is not necessarily the video games, but in a more broad perspective, the media in general. Take the first hundred channels you see, or even ten random ones, and flip through them. Tell me how many are composed of violence or sex. Children are taught from an early age that that is what everyone is doing. They then follow it.
Third, we have become insensitive to others with no empathy, leading back to reason one. We are also hyper sensitive ourselves. We tend to get offended easily by even the smallest things causing everyone to have to constantly cover their tracks in order to avoid an international incident. It becomes rather irritating and cumbersome, in my opinion. Both of these together cause us to get irritated at others because they may dislike our small flaws and then they escalate because we don't empathize with them.
The key word is empathy, and I am one of the people who believes that we are simply a scientific anomaly, but my parents had taught me that being nice and caring to others was the correct thing to do. When I could finally construct a coherent thought myself, I agreed with these thoughts more than I agreed with my... not so keen peers. I find no purpose in us and can still be nice, and I find am nicer than some zealots I know at school. Anyways, I continued to be nice through life and have partially been thought of as a nerd because of it, but I'd much rather be helpful and happy than cool and an idiot.
We didn't need a study to prove this. Honestly, we live in a time and day where parents are willing to blame anything except themselves for the crappy lifestyles of their children. Which sucks, because it's usually the fault of parents who aren't bothering to censor what their children see, but are more then willing to blame it when something happens. That's like giving your teenage son a Playboy and punishing him because he made the natural reaction of self-pleasure.
I'm altruistic... I do the right thing just because it is the right thing... I have a strong sense of right and wrong, and I always try to do the right. my lifelong motto is "If not me, who else ?" and I hope that I'll be able to raise my children, if any, to think like that and influence people to be like that, too. Good should be done because.
We didn't need a study to prove this. Honestly, we live in a time and day where parents are willing to blame anything except themselves for the crappy lifestyles of their children. Which sucks, because it's usually the fault of parents who aren't bothering to censor what their children see, but are more then willing to blame it when something happens. That's like giving your teenage son a Playboy and punishing him because he made the natural reaction of self-pleasure.
I have to add something to vg's psot - If oyu take the first 100 channels, many will also have many stupid saturday morning cartoons, like Spongebob Squarepants. When I look at it as a nearly-grown-up human being, my brain hurts. It's so near to the total embodiment of stupid, I'd like to shoot it int othe sun. If impressionable young children wathc that, what if they take it as a role model ? If my future child started acting like Patrick, I'd beat myself to death with a sudoku leaflet.
Also, look at the old TOm and Jerry cartoons or many others. Whislt it is cartoon violence, it's nonetheless violent ,and I've never seen Jerry show any empathy towards Tom. Often Jertry is the one startign the aggression in teh first case by stealing food, and when Tom only does his duty- protecting the house of vermin - Jerry hits him without pardon.
I don't say TV is to blame, but so much illogicality can't be good. Children are small, but not stupid. The average teenager is "dumber" then a child (because during puberty your whole brain is reconstructed and TEMPORARILY CUT DOWN, literally - synapses are being cut like a rosebush so that they spread equally again.), and children have a great potential to learn. But if they start with Spongebob and the more or less sublimal morale in most of these cartoons, not to mention the total fridge logic (many of the pseudo-scientific explanations in TV shows make me want to stick a fork in my eyesocket and relieve me of 20 IQ points) in it.
I say TV Writers should actually BOTHER TO DO THE RESEARCH and not treat people - especially children - as if they're stupid-. And they should stop pulling science out of their arse.
Violence, violence... it's all the responsibility of the parents. Parents do not spend time with their children or actually raise them, which can lead to psychological problems as an adult. It's not genetics; for the most part, it's the environment which is causing the problems. Genetics may have a slight role in it, but the problem mostly lies within bad parenting.
But, of course, no matter how many US studies are published, some people Jack Thompson, Hillary Clinton will continue to show hatred towards violent games, and try to get them banned. It needs to be made aware that parents should decide what's appropriate for their children and what's not, and that label on the box should only be used for reference.
Zelnor wrote:
I have to add something to vg's psot - If oyu take the first 100 channels, many will also have many stupid saturday morning cartoons, like Spongebob Squarepants. When I look at it as a nearly-grown-up human being, my brain hurts. It's so near to the total embodiment of stupid, I'd like to shoot it int othe sun. If impressionable young children wathc that, what if they take it as a role model ? If my future child started acting like Patrick, I'd beat myself to death with a sudoku leaflet.
Stupid? Spongebob's funny as hell, though. D:
If you don't believe me, watch the episode "Chocolate with Nuts."
Another thing is preschooler shows, even before kids are old enough for Spongebob.
Look at Teletubbies, or Oobi.
It has been scientifically proven that babies/toddlers must be spoken to as if they were adults in order for them to speak properly. Using a sugar-coated voice and baby talk can lead to them having speech problems later in life.
No wonder babies are usually really pissed off and cry such a lot. >:
Seriously, how can we ever hope that our offspring will grow into nice, intelligent, functioning people when we start talking to them as if they're retarded ? Even if they don't grasp it the first three times, doing as if they're stupid will just cause their impressive ability to learn to reduce.
I propose we give our children a Portal Gun for their second birthday and have them discover physics. XD
Me: "Think, Gilligan - how will you get to the cake ?" Kid: *pulls out Portal Gun and heel-moutned robo spirngs and goes off, reaches cake, eats it* Me: "Now you're thinking with portals ! ... Hey, is all the cake gone ? >:"
No wonder babies are usually really pissed off and cry such a lot. >:
Actually, that's just because they're totally dependent on their caretaker for all their custodial needs, and have no other way of communicating they need something other than crying.
