Where's

jOHN rODRIGUEZ · #1 04-01-2008, 12:31 PM

a policeman
when you need one
to blame the color T.V.?

http://www.news4jax.com/news/15761895/detail.html

They are not learning this from cartoons.

BeautifulBurnout · #2 04-01-2008, 12:43 PM

You only have to read Lord of the Flies to know that unfettered kids are evil little buggers.

Quote:

Tanner said the parents of the children accused are, "Shocked, saddened, and surprised. This is their worst nightmare."

You're damn right this is their worst nightmare. I really can't comment on what was going through the minds of these kids, but I sincerely hope that this is a wake-up call for their parents to actually try and understand where this kind of behaviour is coming from and take some responsibility to address it. It is too easy to blame it on cartoons/video games/tv shows/whatever else.

cacophony · #3 04-01-2008, 04:31 PM

awwwwww WHY does no good news come out of georgia?! it's always the really stupid, embarrassing shit!

gillenium · #4 04-02-2008, 12:57 AM

How could this many 3rd graders opt into a plan like this? It boggles my mind. You'd think at least one would be like "Uh... no, this is bad" and tell a teacher or a parent.

Kinda scared for the future of our country right now.. Although, I agree with some of you that it's silly to blame TV and videogames and all that, I do think TV and videogames are part of a more socially violent trend that's affecting all aspects of kids' lives now. Couple that with the decreasing standard of American parenting and you've got a recipe for crap like this.

Deckard · #5 04-02-2008, 02:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gillenium

Although, I agree with some of you that it's silly to blame TV and videogames and all that, I do think TV and videogames are part of a more socially violent trend that's affecting all aspects of kids' lives now...

I agree, and it's yet another of those circular self-fuelling things - culture influencing behaviour influencing culture.... chicken and egg stuff that makes it very hard to tackle.

And like you say, there are other not insignificant factors more generally (with the usual caveats about recognising them as generalisations and not drawing simplistic direct correlations)... standard of parenting, change in family structure, change in attitude to authority figures, inequality (and perceived inequality), change in lifestyle and diet, a sense that the world owes you a living, a triumph of sensation over fact, of emotion over reason, of personal enjoyment over consequences... etc etc.

Slightly unrelated, but I was going to start a thread a while back on the way our* culture seems to have developed into one that almost celebrates cruelty, cynicism and selfishness. About how people years ago seemed so much more humble, less cynical and conducted themselves with so much more decency and consideration for others. I know this all probably sounds so cliched, but sometimes when I look at what makes us laugh now on TV, the cruelty, the humiliation, something as simple as the way a chatshow has evolved or how the news is delivered.... I do question whether it's really for the better, and where exactly we're headed if we remain on this path. Yeah I know, going off on one here, but it's something that's become increasingly apparent to me, even if it makes me feel like an old git for saying so.

*I'm referring to what might be arrogantly described as popular Western culture.

chuck · #6 04-02-2008, 09:18 PM

bloody old gits.

next thing you'll be wanting the cane back.

Someone blame the teachers. Loafers all of them - only work 9 till 3, get bloody long holidays, and they're still going out on strike. Communist, mung bean hippies the lot of them. N. bloody U. bloody T.

Nuts to the lot of them.

it's either that or bloody myspace. rubbish. all of it.