Where Politics And Video Games Collide

Any time I go into discussions like this, I like to avoid the religious aspects and go directly into the logic so that I can avoid any religiously biased counter-arguments, and hopefully I'll find logic that can't even be refuted on religious grounds. I think I'll try that now. I'll start with a quote and then comment on it. One last note, I think the fact that I am a devout Catholic should be known so people know what background I'm coming from, but I should also note that, in my opinion, most people who call themselves "Catholics" are really not Catholics. That involves being true to God (and therefore to his creations), not just going to church every weekend and then otherwise being a bigot or a snob or something. Now that you have some background and opinion, I think you know enough to decide whether what I say is credible or not.


It is a sad state in this society that plain old common sense has disappeared

I agree, common sense is scarce these days. I see examples of this every day. Let's look up the definition of common sense, shall we? According to dictionary.com, common sense is sound practical judgment that is independent of specialized knowledge, training, or the like; normal native intelligence. So, what common sense is this man arguing is lacking? To sum up, he claims that everybody fails to realize we learn from experience. His idea is that if we experience evil, we will become evil. I disagree with that and I also would like to argue that whether or not we know about us learning from experience is irrelevant. Going for an extreme example, if you experience your house being robbed at gunpoint, you just gained some knowledge. If a person has even a slightly healthy mind, they will realize that GUN = BAD and STEALING = BAD. I could go on, but let's move to another quote.


Thus what we conceive in the mind, if acted upon, becomes sin.

My first problem is that he does not specify that only evil thoughts can manifest sin, but that can be interpreted as simply me being picky about grammar. More importantly, I would like to say that this is entirely right. Doing things that you know are bad is definitely bad. However, this does not apply to video games either. We know for a fact that playing GTA will not kill anybody, will not rob them of their possessions, or any other evil acts in the game. As soon as the game is turned off, the world you just robbed from disappears, and nobody is harmed. There is no evil in simulating such events. Let's apply something more applicable to myself and see how I fare against this arguement. I like this particular game series called "Thief" which you might have heard of. Obviously criminal intent will be involved, somewhat of a similar nature to what a D&D rogue might do. One thing you can do is pick locks. I was influenced by this, no doubt. I have a set of picks which I use as a hobby only with consent or on my own locks, and I have developed useful skills in case the worst happens. However, I have no intention of ever breaking into a room I was not given permission to enter. I have even developed an interest in security in general and hope that I can make a living from it. All in all, I would say that playing that game has influenced me very positively. Let's move on to another quote.


We need to protect the minds of ourselves and our youth from the violence in the world and portrayed in video games.

Protect them from what? Evil? Isolation might work. Evil will exist around a person no matter what. It is up to parents to tell a child what is right and what is not (and also to get that information right themselves so they can give a good example), and it is up to that child to obey what they have learned and know what's okay and what's not. Attempting to remove the ambient evil in the world is not the answer, it won't happen. All in all, it is up to each individual to lead a life of goodness on his own to the best of his ability, despite the bad happening around him. If a man plays video games, that does not seem to contradict a life of goodness to me. The contradiction occurs when we carry that into the real world, and I hardly see that happening so the only answer is that those who do have sick minds (like, literally sick as in a disease). Assuming you have a healthy mind (not the same as being intelligent) you are safe from your video games.