So this isn't exactly the most recent news (maybe 2 weeks old?) but I found it to be so disturbing that I had to blog about it. Lyndon LaRouche, who I'm sure everybody here has heard of because he's run for the presidency eight times since 1976 according to trusty old Wiki (I don't even know if that math works out right), has condemned Halo 3 as a corrupter of American youth. Good sir, if I may say so: HOW DARE YOU?!?!? While I certainly respect his opinion, I mean who wouldn't listen to a man who was sentenced to fifteen years in prison for conspiracy to commit mail fraud, I must disagree. Halo represents all that is good in American culture. There is absolutely nothing more American than Halo. I once read that Halo jumped into raging rapids to save a basket of puppies. No joke. Sure, maybe Mr. LaRouche can draw some credence from the fact that over five reputable sources have declared him to be an anti-Semite. Oh wait no, I forgot that we aren't Nazis. My bad. Fact of the matter is, Lyndon LaRouche is an absolute political radical (read what he said from the link I'll post at the end, it's almost scary), convicted criminal, and apparently just all around intolerant man. For these reasons, I have absolutely no reason to respect his opinions. For some reason, I highly doubt that, as Mr. LaRouche claims, the Virginia Tech incident was caused by video games. Plus, his middle name is Hermyle. And I just can't bring myself to trust any man with the middle name of Hermyle.
On a somewhat more serious note, politicians seriously need to get off the whole attacking video games thing. Do they honestly make people that much more violent than violent movies, TV, or news? More importantly, do these other violent things provide any benefits. I recently was bored and started thinking about, in my lifetime, how many hours I've spent playing video games. After it got into the thousands I just kinda got sad and stopped trying to count. Yes, in case you hadn't figured it out yet, I am a HUGE nerd. So just for kicks, I'll say the total was 1,000 hours. Even though it's probably way, way higher. Some quick math figures that to be about a month and a half of my total life. Do I see that as wasted time, or time that was spent turning me into a crazed killer? Absolutely not. In fact, I completely attribute almost all of my problem solving skills, reflex times, and knowledge about football/basketball/baseball strategies to video games. And let's just say that I'm probably better than 90% of the American population in at least two of those categories. So basically, video games are not evil and in fact are very beneficial.
On a closing note, I hope you have not lost all respect for me as a human being because of that last paragraph. Though I would be totally OK with it if you did.
And here are the statements made by Lyndon LaRouche: http://www.larouchepac.com/news/2007/09/26/halo-3-third-wave-destroying-u-s.html
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5 comments:
When I first read your post, I was pretty skeptical because you were just bashing the guy for most of the post. However, after actually reading what LaRouche had to say, I have to agree. The man is insane.
Once I got past him calling Wikipedia the Ministry of Truth, which was cool I guess, and dove into his actual argument, I still didn't agree with him. His reasons for hating Halo 3 include the fact that it will "dehumanize the image of human beings" and that American youth should use "their precious time working to push the frontiers of science by discovering fusion power..."
I can, as Eric did, vouge that videogames have had no such effect on me, but also I would argue that Halo does no such thing (dehumanization that is). Games such as Counterstrike in which you kill terrorists can promote racist attitudes against terrorist and desensitize Americans to killing them, but Halo does no such thing. In the game, a player defends the human race from extinction at the hands of the alien menace, that's practically the American dream. I think it ranks second after pulling a heist with a monkey.
As to the amount of time spent playing the game: in every generation, American youths will waste time on various leisure activities. This is not necessarily a bad thing. A constant dedication to study and research without time for leisure and recreation would cause youths to buckle under the weight of unrelieved stress and anxiety.
Velasco, I, like you, have spent way too many hours playing video games...
While I don't agree that "Halo represents all that is good in American culture", I get somewhat bitter when people argue that videogames can make you violent. Killing aliens, or even people in videogames is COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY different than real-life violence.
People blame video games for real life violence all too often. Why don't people look at normal kids who play videogames? There are plenty of kids out there who play videogames that wouldn't kill a fly, let alone another person.
All these kids that are murderers and physcopaths that just happen to play videogames were BORN that way. Video games didn't help make them insane.
Velasco
I think its ridiculous that someone could think killing aliens could make someone a violent person. That just doesn't make any sense to me. LaRouche's reasons for disliking halo are completely ridiculous. It does not dehumanize human beings at all. Maybe he should actually play it and give it a try..hahah good post dude
First of all we can see that this guy is a crackpot. LaRouche obviously cannot tell the difference between real violence and fantasy violence. First of all people have always given video games such crap on how they corrupt a human being. The only people that recreate the things they see in video games are dumb. They are dumb. On the other hand lets look at a different view on video games. Did you know that surgeons sometimes warm themselves up by playing videogames. Why is this? It is to keep dexterity and promote proper and precise hand movements.
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