Friday, December 14, 2007

Cause or Effect?

In this past week we have had three separate shootings in North Texas that started with a knock on the door. In Colorado a goblin decided he wanted to kill Christians, in Nevada a jilted boyfriend shoots up a bus stop, and in Nebraska a looser decides to go out with a bang in a mall. Ultra violence, Clockwork Orange style, is all the rage these days. Why? That is an important question, why? Where is the disconnect? What motivates these folks to just go out and kill, maim and hurt as many people as possible? I do not know the answer to that question. It makes sense that the breakdown of the family and the contempt of traditional morals in our public life are factors that would allow this type of behavior to grow, but what is the source of these thoughts that become ultra violent actions?

The following is a video of a group whose albums are purchased by our kids in pretty much any mall in America. Please do not click the "go" button if you are easily offended or upset by violence. I thought long and hard about posting this, but I think it is important to see what is influencing our kids today.

The video was juvenile, but the song was gruesome. Stanley Kubrick would be proud.

I enjoyed listening to Alice Cooper when I was younger, I understood that his stage act was an attempt to bring "B" movie hack and slash effects to the rock and roll stage. Where Alice Cooper's music has some redeeming qualities and commented on current culture, this music attempts to influence culture. After listening to several songs by this group, the apparent glorification of necrophilia, self mutilation and serial murder is appalling. Is this music a symptom, or a cause of ultra violence in our society?

7 comments:

AlanDP said...

Since I'm on dial-up I don't watch videos, so I don't know what group this is. However, I thought I'd point out that according to Loren Coleman at copycateffect.blogspot.com, the groups that two of these shooters "identified" with were both from Finland. So one could say that it is not exactly "our" society that is producing that music.

He refers to them as "funeral doom bands." I don't know if that's an official rock genre.

John R said...

The band is called "Dark Lotus", it is made up of the members of Insane Clown Posse, Twiztid, and Blaze Ya Dead Homie. Now ICP I have heard of, the others are unknown to me.

Fits said...

Can't put the genie back in the bottle, JR. Pseudo-violence is ALL the rage and it does appear to spill over into the real world on a regular basis. And nary a one of us can do anything about how other people raise their children.

Anonymous said...

"What motivates these folks to just go out and kill, maim and hurt as many people as possible?"

How about-- all the publicity and air time and fame/infamy that the previous murderers have gotten?

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen/2007/12/07/a_challenge_to_the_press

--LGD

John R said...

Anon;

The desire for media coverage is a part of the final process in the goblins decision making. It can explain how the goblin comes up with the who/what/where and how. To me, it really does not explain the why.

What has bent the mind of this type of goblin to the point where he can consciously imagine such ultra violent acts? When these thoughts first enter his mind, what makes them okay? How does he rationalize to himself the urge to perform large scale acts of violence?

Rob said...

If you look at it from a reverse angle... if you take the music away, is that going to change behavior? I doubt it -- as much as having bangers pull up their pants would not have an effect on their criminal activity.

So, is it a cause? I'd like to think no. Is it an influence? Very strong possibility, but I doubt removing it would do anything to eradicate the trends we're seeing.

Ryan said...

I am 24 years old and spent quite a few of those years listening to angry violent rock music which advocated all manner of things. Coupled with teenaged angst the powderkeg was definintely primed. However the reason I did not do anything bad is that I had decent parents who raised me to be smart and responsible for my actions. Also not being mentally ill helped alot. Kids who are raised right (assuming no serious mental illness) will not do bad things regardness of what they see in the media wheras kids who are not raised right(or really raised at all) can and often do horrible things regardless of their choices in music.