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Being entertained and the feeling that it is your right to be entertained are modern day phenomena. One hundred and fifty years ago the young people would have demanded that it was their right not to starve to death or not to be killed in some bloody battlefield. But things change and man’s greed knows no bounds. And here we are again in 2005, and the young people are still demanding, and the older people are still greedy and willing to use whatever lies in their grasp to gain more money and power. But what does this have to do with you? You are free, aren’t you?
The world cries “democracy,” “freedom,” and “free enterprise,” and we all nod our heads in agreement and go shopping. We judge each other according to the kinds of clothes we wear, the kind of car we drive, the kind of neighborhood we live in, and the extent to which we are entertained. If you have to work, work, work with little time for entertainment, you are considered poor even though you might have lots of money. What has gone wrong?
A part of the modern day definition of freedom and liberty is the license to make money in any way you want, and the trick is to not get caught. Big business has its own way of getting around sticky issues like selling things that damage people. They do this by advertising the truth out of things. They can actually convince you that smoking is not harmful and actually makes you into a tough guy or a trendy gal. Even though human rights organizations insist on warnings on packets of cigarettes, people still buy and smoke, then many get sick and die.
That is not the only kind of harm that is being spread around these days in the advertising entertainment “gimme, gimme, gimme” world of modern day capitalism. How many young people have been shut up and made comatose and controlled by adults? You may answer, “No, not me! I do what I want. No one tells me what to do!” But you are being controlled, and you are paying to be controlled, and you like it.
Parents tell young people “do not do this,” “do not do that,” “do not go here,” “do not watch this,” but the young people usually go anyway because the giant money-making machines of the modern world have told them that junk food is good for you, violent films do not make violent people, and aggressive, point-scoring killing machines on computer games do not damage young people’s minds. And at the same time these same huge money-making companies ignore the growing statistics of increased youth violence, incidents of youngsters committing murder and not knowing why they did, and increased addiction to drugs and alcohol in an attempt to curb negative and troubling thoughts and feelings that come about because of the youths’ exposure to insane amounts of violence, death, horror, and torture in the context of play and amusement. Wholesale promotion and acceptance of violence goes against the very nature of man, and yet the money-making machines exploit you to the extent that you even pay for your own inevitable destruction.
So what do you think about that? Is it fair ? Should these companies be allowed to take advantage of you like this?
When young people play these games they often have the urge to enact them in real life, and this is where the danger lies. Some computer games are violent in nature; for example, there is one about wrestling that depicts brutal people as heroes, meaning that some young people will want to be like them. So when these youths go to play, they practice these techniques on younger brothers and sisters or between their friends or, worse still, when they are angry and confront an enemy. How many young people are sitting in prison because of violent crimes they committed based on the horrific violent films they had watched or the computer games they had recently played? The only difference between the films and games and real life is that in real life you get punished for violent actions; whereas in the games you get points for how many people you kill, so you are the winner the more violent you are. How can this be justified by the companies that produce them and the governments that allow them? Should the young people in prison be able to sue the companies that have exploited them and helped to lead them down the path of violence?
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Such films and games give people the sense that they can get away with whatever they do and that no one can beat the tough guy! There is no doubt that so many violent crimes in today’s world have been proven to have been enacted by persons who based their actions on a film or a game they had become addicted to.
Why do people pay and allow themselves to be desensitized to the point that they will actually sit at a computer and rape, steal, murder, be a sniper, or a hit man and say they are having fun! “Oh that was great!” they cry when they get a direct hit. Then these same people might sit and watch the news and complain about the increase in the crime rate and complain that it is no longer safe to go out at night. While young people are killing or being killed , imprisoned, or addicted to any of a hundred things; are losing their sense of reality, losing their identity as members of the human race and their relation with their fellowman—while all this is happening, the money-makers who grow fat on the profits of the film industry and the computer games industry lounge beside pools in glorious luxurious mansions paid for by your money, your humanity, your life. What are you going to do about it?
You can choose from the following:
Avoid the things that are dangerous to yourself and to others and show some responsibility.
Or do nothing; be a statistic; be a nobody; allow yourself to be used and abused.
Get a life and learn something, do something, say something to make the world a better place for young people like yourself to live in.
Or make the rich guy richer while he sips on his martini and nibbles at his caviar while you are addicted to his game or in prison for the crime he enacted for you in that film.
Start a campaign against the users of the world and encourage young people to think about their lives and where they are heading.
Or become a zombie and addict yourself to being entertained to death.
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