Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="TallIan" data-source="post: 7623866" data-attributes="member: 6853819">I wonder how much western childhood education (education here means parents teaching their kids as well, not just formal education) comes into this?&nbsp; My wife is a primary school teacher and takes an absolute approach of &quot;violence is wrong&quot;.&nbsp; This is line with most education systems I have come across.&nbsp; They leave no wiggle room for self defense, self preservation, mutual consent or other justification.Then as the child grows up he is exposed to violent sports, such as rugby or american football (where mutual consent to limited violence is key to this not being a crime), then bloodsports, such as boxing (again mutual consent and fewer limitations), then TV and film (fictional volence), where violence steadily increases with age limits (even My Little Pony has fight scenes) with the violence having almost no consequences for young audiences (the attacked usually suffers very little ill effect) to violence simply being a solution to the hero's problem.&nbsp; The mooks are entirely dehumanised, they are merely an obstruction that disappears after a punch or kick.All the while they are told, &quot;Violence is Bad!&quot;So we are left with a simple moral question of &quot;Is he bad? Yes. Kill him.&quot;&nbsp; But the definition of bad is essentially &quot;not the same as me.&quot; and many adults are ill equipped to actually deal with the moral question of, &quot;When is violence acceptable?&quot; because the only answer they can give is, &quot;When is not against a person.&quot; and this allows all kinds of media to perpetuate violence by labeling the victims of violence as monsters.Now compare that to something where morality is not so complex.&nbsp; Sexual violence is always wrong and IMX very, very few groups will accept it in a game and even then usually only in the vaguest of terms and usually as a way to dehumanise the bad guys.&nbsp; There is even a thread on this forum (I think, it might be GitP) about a DM getting thrown out of a convention for having it in his game. Because everyone is well equipped to deal with this particular moral question, even if it is simpler.I limit my theory here to western cultures because African (I speak from close - though thankfully not eyewitness - experience, having grown up there); Middle Eastern (Second hand experience from friends in the army) and Oriental (from a medium term work placement away from tourist areas) Cultures have a different (IMO a much more callous) view of human life or violence.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="TallIan, post: 7623866, member: 6853819"] I wonder how much western childhood education (education here means parents teaching their kids as well, not just formal education) comes into this? My wife is a primary school teacher and takes an absolute approach of "violence is wrong". This is line with most education systems I have come across. They leave no wiggle room for self defense, self preservation, mutual consent or other justification. Then as the child grows up he is exposed to violent sports, such as rugby or american football (where mutual consent to limited violence is key to this not being a crime), then bloodsports, such as boxing (again mutual consent and fewer limitations), then TV and film (fictional volence), where violence steadily increases with age limits (even My Little Pony has fight scenes) with the violence having almost no consequences for young audiences (the attacked usually suffers very little ill effect) to violence simply being a solution to the hero's problem. The mooks are entirely dehumanised, they are merely an obstruction that disappears after a punch or kick. All the while they are told, "Violence is Bad!" So we are left with a simple moral question of "Is he bad? Yes. Kill him." But the definition of bad is essentially "not the same as me." and many adults are ill equipped to actually deal with the moral question of, "When is violence acceptable?" because the only answer they can give is, "When is not against a person." and this allows all kinds of media to perpetuate violence by labeling the victims of violence as monsters. Now compare that to something where morality is not so complex. Sexual violence is always wrong and IMX very, very few groups will accept it in a game and even then usually only in the vaguest of terms and usually as a way to dehumanise the bad guys. There is even a thread on this forum (I think, it might be GitP) about a DM getting thrown out of a convention for having it in his game. Because everyone is well equipped to deal with this particular moral question, even if it is simpler. I limit my theory here to western cultures because African (I speak from close - though thankfully not eyewitness - experience, having grown up there); Middle Eastern (Second hand experience from friends in the army) and Oriental (from a medium term work placement away from tourist areas) Cultures have a different (IMO a much more callous) view of human life or violence. [/QUOTE]

Verification