There sure seems to be an increase in violent crime lately. I can see many reasons why. The COVID pandemic pushing people over the edge, war in the Ukraine making people feel uneasy, police agencies being gutted and underfunded, the loss of a rational middle in political discourse, a scary vacuum in political leadership, a society possibly too large and unwieldy for a classical liberal republic to thrive in, etc. But I still believe a huge part is society being desensitized to violence through corporate media.

Actually, this quote is somewhat dated. Violence in movies is a one-way street and a 30 second Super Bowl ad will run you closer to 7 million these days. I am speaking more of the two-way street, first-person shooter video games where you are interacting with the medium as you kill virtual beings by the score to rack up the score. I don't believe an adult who was not raised on them is affected much by playing those games. I am thinking more about the kids raised on them from birth. When virtual killing becomes a game where you are rewarded for the highest kill counts, that may create some psychological issues down the road, and I believe that is what we are seeing as these kids are getting older.

As an anecdotal example of the cultural change in the tolerance for media violence I think of the 1971 film 'A Clockwork Orange'. My first wife worked in a movie theater when it was released, and I was able to see it numerous times, as it was an excellent movie. However, it caused quite a bit of controversy at the time because of how violent many of the images were. It was banned in some countries. I recall at the time wincing at some of the acts portrayed in the film and finding them disturbing. I just reviewed the most violent scenes on You Tube today. It looked laughable, more like the staged violence of an opera. I was not repelled by anything I saw, which also indicates how my perception has changed over the years too. One huge difference though is that movies are still a one-way street, as I brought up earlier. You are not actively involved in the medium except as a spectator.

There is a new kid in my hood that I am guessing is 15 or so. I see him walking around about the same time every day staring down at his phone. He never looks up, even as I cheerily greet him in my best jolly old man persona. A few days ago, I literally stood in his way because I wanted to know what on that phone was so fascinating. I told him I was just curious what he was doing on his phone while walking. He showed me some first-person shooter game he was playing. This kid could play a fairly sophisticated video game while walking. I told him I was impressed. He said this game was nothing and he has a bigger game set-up at home, but his mom makes him take a walk every day so he gets out of the house and gets some exercise and fresh air. I could easily sense this kid is comfortably straddling the space between physical and virtual reality as they are blending into one at an incredible clip. This will be a valuable skill set in future warfare too, as battles will all be fought remotely. No more face-to-face killing, just blips on a screen.