Argument

Video games have been around for a long time and for almost as long as video game programmers were able to program violence into their games, there has been controversy about whether or not violence in video games causes violence in real life.  Every time there is a killer that was found to have played video games, there are always people that rise up to blame the killer’s homicidal behavior on violent video games. These people call for violent video games to be banned but what these people do not seem to understand is that just playing a violent video game does not make someone start killing people. There is usually something wrong with these people and blaming video games on these actions is ludicrous. I am not saying that study should not be put into what effect violent video games could have on a person, but banning violent video games completely because some unhinged people happened to play video games is going too far.  As someone who has played video games for most of their life, I can honestly say that I do not see how people could actually think that video games alone could cause someone to kill another person.

            There is an argument that minors should not be able to play violent video games, and while I do agree with this sentiment, I do not think that banning these games is the right way to go about it.  It should be left up to the parents to decide what their children can or cannot play.  The problem is that these days parents will buy their kid a game without even pay attention to the rating of the games.  Games are given ratings for a reason and that reason is to make sure that people know what the game contains and the age type that the game is recommended for.  If parents choose to ignore the game ratings and get their child a game that is too mature or violent for them, the parents are to blame for their child getting the game.  The game industry has no power over what parents buy for their kids, all they can do is put the rating on the game and hope that the rating is heeded by the buyers.  To try to go after the game industry because kids are getting a hold of violent video games is a waste of time because the only person that can keep kids away from violent video games are the parents.

            The jury is out on whether or not violent video games actually lead to aggression in people.  There are some studies that show that video games do lead to increased aggression but in most cases, the findings by these studies are very conflicting (Freeman, David). Some studies have even shown that video games could potentially have a calming effect on children with attentional disorders (Freeman, David).  What can be gained from these conflicting results is that while there could potentially be a correlation between violent behavior and videogames, there is not really enough information to give a definite answer on what, if any, effect video games could have on a person.

            Video games are always something that are blamed whenever a killer or shooter suspect is found to have played video games.  People are always quick to blame a killers’ aggressive and erratic behavior on violent video games.  What people always seem to overlook is that these people usually have mental and emotional problems that are much more likely to blame for the killings than the video games.  The most recent case of video games being blamed for violent acts was the recent shooting at Sandy Hook.  The suspect, Adam Lanza, was shown to have a massive obsession with guns and other weapons and he was also found to be autistic and was bullied in school (Rivera, Ray).  Yet after the discovery of his obsession with video games, people were quick to point the blame at his interest in video games instead of any of the other very possible causes for his homicidal behavior.  The people in the town went as far as to have a burning for violent video games ( Gabbatt, Adam).  I can understand some people’s sense of despair in the wake of such a terrible tragedy, but to blame video games to the point where you are holding a burning for video games is just ridiculous. 

It almost seems as though some people are just looking for something to blame for these type of tragedies.  It seems that with each new evolution of entertainment, there are always people that make some sort of controversy about it.  When rock and roll first came out, people were afraid that it would corrupt the youth and would bring about the end of decent civilization.  Elvis had to be filmed from the waist up when he appeared on television because he swayed his hips when he sang, and at the time, that was considered to raunchy to be shown on television.  Video games just seem to be the newest evolution of the controversial forms of entertainment.  In all honesty, while there are some very violent things in video games, it is not really anything that you cannot see in television and movies these days.  Some rated R movies show more violence than anything that I have ever seen in a videogame, and yet I never hear anyone blaming violent acts on movies.  I understand not liking the interactive aspect of video game violence, but there simply has to be some sort of understanding that video games cannot be solely blamed whenever there is a tragedy in which the perpetrator played video games.  Whether it is through movies, television, or even music, people are constantly exposed to violent imagery and ideas and besides the interactive part of it, there is really no difference between video games and these other forms of entertainment.  I can almost guarantee that if there is a new form of entertainment that comes out after video games and it incorporates violence in some way, there will be controversy over that as well.

I do not really see the debates on violent video games ending any time soon and I can foresee people who blame video games for violent acts to be around for a long time.  While it may be true that video games can contain a lot of violence, there has not really been any study that has shown a cement connection between video games and violent behavior in people.  I can attest to the fact that video games can at times be stressful, but I have never once seen the violence seen in video games as being something that I should do in real life.  Most video game players see the violence in video games as fiction and they treat it as just that, but there are some people who are unable to differentiate between the violence in video games and violence in real life.  These people usually have something wrong with them so that the thought of killing people does not seem inherently wrong to them.  The people who try to have video games banned do not seem to understand that banning video games will not really solve anything.  There is still violence in movies and in television, and people who mean to do violence probably watch television and movies as well.  Banning video games is not the answer to stopping violence and the sooner people realize this, the sooner they can begin to focus on more important things in our society.

Bibliography

Freeman, David. “Violent Video Games May Curb Bullying in Vulnerable Children, Study Suggests.” Huffington Post 28 August 2013, Web, 14 November 2013

Gabbatt, Adam.  “Connecticut Town to burn violent video games as Sandy Hook returns to school.” The Guardian 3 January 2013, Web, 14 November 2013

Rivera, Ray, Kleinfield, N.R., Kovaleski, Serge F. “Newtown Killer’s Obsession, in Chilling Detail”. The New York Times 28 March 2013, Web, 14 November 2013

Analysis

Life and death are two things that have always fascinated and terrified me.  Ever since I was young, I always saw death as an unknown entity.  We have no way of knowing whether there is anything after out hearts stop beating and that unknown element scares me even to this day.  Life is something that I only began really thinking about after I had gotten older.  I am always wondering if there is actually any purpose in life and if we are put on this earth for a reason or if we are born simply to eventually die.  This might seem like a rather hopeless way to look at life but these are the kinds of things that go through my head whenever I try to think about life.  I see life as a thing that can at points contain great beauty and hope and at other times seem like a cold, uncaring existence that we are simply stumbling through with no real direction.  My fascination with the ideas of life and death is what first attracted me to the story of Daytripper, but after reading through the book, I almost felt as though the book had given me a new outlook on life.

Daytripper, written and drawn by Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba, is about a man named Bras de Olivias Dominguez.  Bras is the son of a world famous writer who dreams of becoming a writer himself.  Bras laments that fact that despite his attempts to become an actual writer, he is stuck writing obituaries for a newspaper.  Daytripper can be a confusing book because of the way that it is told.  Each chapter of the story begins in various stages of Bras' life, starting at the age of 32 and then going to various points in his past and his future.  The interesting thing is that each chapter ends with Bras dying.  Each chapter ends with Bras' death as well as an obituary article going over what Bras had accomplished in his life.  The book does not really become a concrete narrative until the last chapter which see Bras as an old man.  All the chapters showing different parts of his life all lead to this final chapter where Bras is an old man who has just been told that he has cancer.  Unlike the other chapters, where Bras died suddenly and sometimes violently, Bras now see death as something that should not be feared.  He has lived through the various points in his life that the reader has seen in the previous chapters and he feels that he has lived a good life. The story might seem confusing at first, but even though I was a little confused at first, I was still deeply impacted by the story.

Daytripper shows life as something that is mysterious and at times frightening, but it also shows it in a hopeful light, showing all the dreams and struggles of one man all culminating in a life well lived.  It shows death as something that should not be feared because it is something that will come for all of us one day.  The story shows us how life should be lived to its fullest and that we should consider what our life would be viewed like if we were to die today.  The obituary articles at the end of each chapters show how Bras' life was described was perceived after dying at the various points in his life.  The various deaths shown were at times shocking and violent and at other times peaceful and quiet.  The story shows death as something that cannot be avoided and most of the time is not pleasant, but it is not something that we can run away from. Death, as hard as it might be to accept, is something that will eventually come for all of us and there is no point fearing it because there is nothing that we can do to stop it.   We all will face trials and tribulations during our lives and we will all have days where we feel as though life is hopeless, but in the end, we all live exactly once and we should try to live our lives to the fullest.  We should never give up on our dreams and when life gets us down we just have to get up and keep moving because life is too short and unpredictable to waste on feelings of hopelessness and sorrow.

Life and death are still things that occasionally frighten me and I still feel a sense of hopelessness every now in then, but I am being completely honest when I say that Daytripper actually partially changed my viewpoints on life.  It made me think about my life and how no matter how much I do not want it to happen, I will eventually die, and there is nothing I can do about it.  It might sound cliched, but this book made me feel that life is too short to simply focus on the the bad.  There is so much beauty in the world and to ignore these things simply because you have gone through some tough times is just a waste.  Since Daytripper is a graphic novel, I can't really fully portray the beauty of this story without being able to show the great artwork in it but just know that the art complements the story perfectly and makes and already amazing story a classic in my mind.

“Life is like a book son. And every book has an end. No matter how much you like that book you will get to the last page and it will end. No book is complete without its end. And once you get there, only when you read the last words, will you see how good the book is.” 
― Fábio Moon, Daytripper

Response

Hatred can mean different things to different people.  To me hatred is beyond just a simple dislike of something.  Hatred is when there is absolutely no sympathy or good will towards something.  Hatred can be directed towards a person, thing, place, or idea and leads to extreme anger and hostility towards the target of the hatred.  Hate is a word that is tossed around a lot lately, but almost never with the actual meaning of the word being correctly used.  Many times people use the word hate to describe something they dislike but hatred goes far beyond a simple dislike.  Hate means that you have absolutely no sympathy or understanding for these things.  If you hate a person, then you might actually wish harm on this person and you will have no remorse for having these thoughts.  There are people who feel hatred for an entire race of people and those people formed hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan and the Nazis.  People who have and extreme hatred for a place or ideal can become terrorists to try to tear these places or ideas down.  Hate is so powerful and consuming that many people do not even know how it feels to truly hate something even though they might think that they do.

Using myself as an example, I use the word hate almost every day to describe various things that I dislike.  Whether it is about top 100 pop music, reality television, or fashion news, I use the word hate to describe a large amount of things.  But do I truly hate these things?  I definitely strongly dislike these things and I would not shed a tear if these things were suddenly taken off the face of the earth but I think that my feelings for these things are not true hatred because while I do not like any of these things, they are no things that I really think about unless I am actually around them.  If I felt true hatred towards these things, my hatred for them would occupy my thoughts even if there was nothing around that had anything to do with the things that I hated.  For the sake of comparison, I will take something that I actually do hate, bullies, and compare my feelings to that to my feelings towards a lesser thing like reality television.  Reality television is something that annoys me to no end.  I feel that reality tv is a completely mindless and worthless form of entertainment and I honestly cannot understand how anyone can gain any sort of enjoyment from watching idiots act like idiots and making large amounts of money for acting like idiots.  While I do have an extreme dislike for reality tv, it is not truly hatred. 

Bullies on the other hand are something that I truly believe I feel genuine hatred for.  To me a bully is someone who treats others as less than human.  A bully will target someone for no real reason and make their lives a living hell for kicks.  We live in an age where suicide among teenagers is a fairly common thing and bullying is largely to blame for this.  No matter the reason for doing it, bullying is despicable and can ruin people’s lives.  I was bullied when I was younger and it made me feel sub-human.  It made me feel as though I was unloved and unwanted and this might be the reason for my hatred of bullies.  With a minor thing like reality television, I might not like it and I will not understand why other people like it, I will at least accept it as a differing of opinions.  With bullying, there is no reason anyone could ever give me that would make me have any sort of understanding or sympathy for a bully.  I constantly hear about how bullies usually do what they do because they themselves are insecure and hurting on the inside.  Whether this is true or not is not excuse for someone tormenting another person to the point where they consider taking their own lives.  As a young kid and even during a lot of my teen years, I was bullied for being overweight.  This made me terribly self-conscious for my entire life, but at the time that it actually happened it made me feel as though there was something wrong with me.  It made me full ashamed of myself and it pretty much made it impossible for me to feel good about myself.  Yes, this could partially be blamed on me not having much in the way of self-esteem to begin with, but knowing what it is like to be bullied gives me some understanding with those people who decide that they cannot take being bullied anymore.

What I was getting at with that long tirade against bullying is to show the difference between true hatred and a simple dislike of something.  Reality television is something that annoys me but it has never been more than a simple annoyance.  Me being bullied as a kid changed my entire perception about the world, myself, and other people.  As a young kid, I was pretty much always happy and trusting.  As I grew up though, and I saw in the news and in my own experiences how bullying effected people, I changed.  It used to be that I thought that everyone was a good person but as I grew up, my views changed to where I saw people as uncaring and judgmental and I saw the world as a much colder place. All this has been a way of telling how my hatred for something actually changed my perception and view of the world.  In a way, it even changed my personality and view of myself.  I began believing everything that the bullies said about me and this created a sense of self-loathing in me.  Even now, I still occasionally have these feelings and I can’t help but feel that part of it is because I was bullied as a child.

As I said at the beginning, hatred is something far beyond a simple dislike for something.  It is something that is capable of changing a person.  There are a lot of things that are targets for hatred, some just and some that are far less so.  You will always hear someone talking about how much they hate something but it will almost never be true hatred that these people are talking about.

Narrative

I had never really had much of an interest in driving.  I knew that it would be necessary as I got older, but it was just something that I never really put a lot of thought into.  Now that I was seventeen though, it was finally time for me to get my drivers license.  I had already gotten my learners permit and had gotten through all of my drivers ed tests so now the only thing left for me to do was practice for the final test.
     I had never been really confident in my driving abilities but over the course of several weeks of driving around with my dad I had gained a certain amount of confidence in my abilities to drive without crashing into a stationary object.  The regular driving was no longer a struggle for me, but in order to get my drivers license, I would have to also pass a maneuverability test,  This test involved moving the car through a series of cones and then reversing back through the cones without knocking any of the cones over.  I had been practicing it for about a week and while I had not gotten good at it, I had at least gotten to the point where I was able to get through it. That is why the practice session that took place two days before I was supposed to take my test was such a disaster.
     Like every other day for the past few weeks, I drove to a parking lot with my dad to practice the maneuverability test.  The cones were already set up so I began practicing.  I do not know what was wrong with me that day, but for some reason I could not get through without knocking down the cones.  Eventually, I stopped the car, got out, and began walking around the parking lot.  My dad got out and began trying to talk to me.  "I don't understand, he said, "you were able to do this easily the past few days."  I knew that he wasn't trying to ridicule me but something about what he said just set me off.  "I don't know", I muttered, glaring at the ground.  I was getting angry because at the time I thought that if I was unable to do this test now then I would not be able to do it at the test either. My dad suggested that I try it again, but at that point, I had already gotten angry and was finished practicing.  We drove home in silence and even after I had left the car and say down, I was still angry with myself for not being able to get through I test that I had been able to get through at least a dozen times.  I had always been critical of myself, and I just could not understand how I could mess up something that I had been practicing for a days. Eventually I got on with my day, but my worries about the driving test never really left my mind.
     Finally the day for my test had arrived and I still was worried about passing.  After waiting in line for about half an hour, I finally got into the test car with my instructor.  "How are you today?" my instructor asked me.  I was silent for a second but I eventually told him that I was a little worried.  "I'm sure you'll be fine, he said, "just focus on the road and you'll be just fine."  Sure enough, after fifteen minutes, I was able to pass the maneuverability test and was driving back to the license building.  As I was driving back, my instructor looked at me and said, "I told you that you would be fine and you just earned your drivers license".   I couldn't help but smile when he told me this and once I got back to to the building and told my dad that I had passed, pretty much all the anxieties I had over the past few weeks went I way as it finally dawned on me that after all the trouble and anxiety I felt over the past few weeks was over.  Despite my worries that I wouldn't be able to pass, I had finally done it, I had proven to myself that I could do it.
 

Welcome

My name is James Cosner and I am currently writing this blog for my college English class.  I enjoy writing but I have never considered myself to be very good at it.  If you are looking for examples of writings from someone who thinks they are a lot more clever than they actually are, then you have come to the right place.  My hope is that no one outside of the class ever sees the contents of this blog but if by some chance you find yourself looking into my blog, then welcome.  I am supposed to tell some things about myself so some of my interests are comics, video games, cinema, animation, and music.  Though I do not plan on getting into any extensive writing about my self I suppose it would be prudent to state that I occasionally give off a large amount of hatred towards things that i do not like.  So if you are a fan of top 100 pop music, reality television, fashion and celebrity news, or the "writing" of Stephenie Myer, please be aware of my completely biased and most likely unfair views on those subjects.  Back to information, I plan on majoring in film studies because though there are probably not many job opportunities for a major in this field, it is something I am interested in therefore I will be studying it.  My favorite musical genres are metal, alternative, jazz, and techno  and some bands that I like are Coheed and Cambria, Gloryhammer, Korn, and Daft Punk.  My top five favorite movies are The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, The Godfather, 13 Assassins, Dirty Harry, and Face\Off.  This about all i can really stand talking about myself so hopefully I was able to paint of good picture of the writer of this blog, and if I didn't, like I said in the beginning, I have never really considered myself that good as a writer.