Idiocracy

There was this movie released in 2007 called Idiocracy .  It starred Luke Wilson as a very average Joe, who volunteered to be cryogenically frozen in a study that was supposed to last one year.  However he was frozen instead for 500 year and awoke to a USA that was radically different.  Not the utopian future everyone dreams of but instead is a totally stupid society where the average IQ 50.  I often wonder if we will head towards that potential future with today’s social development.

 

Gametrailers has the clip of the abysmal FOX News’ coverage on the Xbox 360 game, Mass Effect.  I don’t believe I have ever heard of such unprofessional journalism as this piece.  FOX is certainly not known for their credibility nor are they watched for that purpose.  News on TV these days are more tabloid than fact and you will find more truth in Britney Spears story than the report on the Iraqi war. 

 

At one particular point during the “panel discussion” in FOX’s coverage on Mass Effect, a woman says that we are living in a society where children are not always supervised, which is a true statement.  But to use that as an excuse for failing as a parent/guardian is unbelievable.  A parent cannot be held responsible for the actions of a child because the child was not supervised?  The panel speaker goes on to illustrate her point with Playboy magazines and how video games are not as easy to keep from a child. 

 

The statements brought forth by this panel of experts, regardless if they had experience with video games or not, were simply false and were not thought through.  If you say that you are unable to control your child from watching or doing something such as playing a video game, then you have seriously failed as a parent.  Certainly I also have had experiences of doing something I wasn’t supposed to behind my parent’s back, were those things the fault of my parents, for the most part, yes.  My mom and dad were not the happiest couple in the world and they were certainly not ready for a child.  I was raised to sometimes think for myself but was usually told what to do without neigh an explanation. 

 

Video games, as anything else of stimuli in this world, require instruction and explanation.  If you don’t explain the reasons to a child, they are not going to value your experience and absorb that into their own understanding.  They require guidance, not just a yes or no answer.  Instead of blaming the developers of video games and other forms of entertain, how about actually doing your job and PARENT your child so they will be equipped to make educated decisions for themselves when they are old enough to buy a gun.