In today's society, we seem further and further inclined to blame all our problems, all of society's problems on someone else.  The most recent culprit is video games, and some arguments have apparently become so convincing that some law makers are considering laws to ban games or seriously control them.  It started in the days of the Columbine shootings, which shocked and horrified the world, and we have yet to turn back.

But the fact is that not all of the studies or findings support certain ideas surrounding video games.  Not all of them support the proposed bans, laws, etc.  The fact is that while some studies have yielded results which suggested that video games might contribute to higher levels of violence, others have shown no significant differences. 

On a personal level, I have some level of disdain for all these ideas.  I have a certain level of disdain for our habit of blaming the fall guy.  We are so afraid of someone being upset at us, losing our pride, etc. that we refuse to just step up and say well it was me, I failed, I did not measure up, and this is what happened because of it. 

In relation to video games, this means that essentially speaking, you cannot blame a game for creating violence.  Yes, some kids do get ideas for violent acts from their video games.  But it is more than likely that those kids had previous problems, previous issues, and previous concepts and visualizations surrounding violent acts.  These children could be exposed to a traffic accident in some cases and develop new ideas about ways to inflict pain on others.

You also have to consider the fact that violence did not begin with video games.  In earlier days, the crusaders committed heinous acts of violence in the name of God.  Columbus and various Spaniards again committed horendous killings in the name of God.  Hitler and others killed a great number of Jews, because they believed and taught German citizens to believe that Jews were the cause of all their problems: economic, personal, everything.  That sounds rather familiar come to think of it.  But in every major genocide since, the offenders were killing off people who they believed to be the root and cause of all their problems, scapegoats that they used. 

In addition, serial killers, who have been around since the dawn of time, have rarely really explained their reasoning, motivations, etc.  But you often find that they grew up in troubled homes, had troubled lives, and found new ways to cope from a young age.  There are some parents of those serial killers and even individuals who killed just one other person, who now ask themselves every day what they did wrong, what they could have done differently.  The truth is, in some cases, we will never know.  But in the meantime, it would certainly help if we would stop acting like violence only began to manifest its ugly head with the appearance of our current scape goats of choice.  It would certainly help if we objectively considered the facts and took a greater level of responsibility in our own lives.