Hey Jack Thompson? Guess what? You suck!

In a somewhat stupid, politically incorrect and definitely defamatory method to actually attract the mad (I am telling you, he’s insane) anti-entertainment ex-lawyer to even take notice of me (and in the process, realize I was actually not talking about video games), I have resulted to name-calling.

I’m sorry, Mr. Thompson, but this is not about videogames and violence, nor is it about your wildly flagrant lies and inappropriate use of the Bible (which I will call you out on eventually), nor is it about your delusions of grandeur. So go ahead and bash me for all I care. You can’t really harm me, and you’ll most likely do me a big favor by sending me to America to charge me for libel

With that said, let’s talk shittyness.

Now then, if I were to say that in the case of nature vs nurture, I side with neither, would you bash me using extremely inappropriate sentences, wildly flagrant lies, snide remarks about doing my mother (whom I wish would be Sakagami Tomoyo, for humor purposes), and whatnot?

I’m not the biggest fan of debating over this topic, because the answer is as clear as day. The environment we live in, in conjunction with who we are, affects, to a certain degree, how we turn out to be in the future. And it’s not just the physical health benefits.

How we turn out mentally and emotionally is a result of not just our parents’ upbringing (which is a fairly huge factor in determining if we become either boring salarymen, sociopathic murderers, bums or six feet under from an unfortunate parachuting accident), but also how society sees the individual, the individual’s willingness to change, and his peer influences. However, it all boils down to the choices the individual makes.

(Notice that by ‘nature’, I don’t just mean the DNA from our parents. I include the very nature of a person and his will.)

Let’s take a moment to run a thought experiment. Let’s say there is a man, whose genetic ancestry can be traced back to some of the most brilliant minds on Earth, and some of the most bloodthirsty murderers, dictators, and let’s throw in pedophiles and rapists for good measure. Would our hapless test subject turn out to be either a brilliant scientist, a power-hungry but insecure despot, a smart murderer, a rapist with pedophillic tendencies, a mixture of the above, or will he turn out to be a boring salaryman, a pastor in the service of God, or something even more far-out? We can’t tell anything about how our test subject will turn out, if we limit ourselves to the genetic material, except his potential to become what his genes spell out.

Now let’s take this same man, and throw him in an environment where he’s surrounded by people who teach him how to be law-abiding and good. Now then, how would our test subject turn out? Still nothing, for it only tells us that he has a 50-50 chance of being good, or being what his genes tell him to.

Do we know anything of his decision to become good or bad? No. Do we know what he wants to be like in life? No. Do we know if he wants to be good or evil? No. What this thought experiment tells us is this: It does not matter who his parents were, or what environment he is in, it is his choices that shape his future. But in order to understand how the individual came to this decision, we must look at the environment the individual is in.

Let’s analyze Cho Seung-Hui, the Virginia Tech shooter. What drove him to end 23+ lives, including some of the finest minds in recent history? Why did he do what he did? In order to understand the man’s actions, we must go into his environment prior to Virginia Tech.

We knew Cho was a silent, shy individual. Perhaps he was mollycoddled a bit when he ws a kid. However, in his early years, it does seem like he was in a good environment. He was constantly praised for his achievements, encouraged to speak up, and as a result, was popular among all those who knew him.

All that changed when he was in middle school (or high school, the details are fuzzy.). He was made fun of by the students who, until then, had been fairly civil, bodering on nice, to him. They made fun of his speech, his walk, his looks. A little racism can’t be ruled out, either. To put it bluntly, he was getting the shaft. No one likes geting the shaft.

Remember that he was a shy, silent individual. He probably didn’t have any friends in middle school and beyond. And his parents were uncontactable for long periods of time, owing to the fact that they were in Korea. Without an outlet for his pent-up feelings, it started to manifest to hate. And for those of you who know how the Jedi mantra goes, well, I’m going to say it: Anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering, resulting in destruction, blahblahblah.

He chose to kill because he couldn’t express his feelings. He thought it was the only way out of his suffering. The burning hatred, the desire to wipe out millions of lives, we don’t know why anyone would want to do that. But we can only draw out possible reasons why from his prior environments.

Let’s relate the issue back at hand to Japanese animation and why some studios decided to rescedule certain shows, and flat-out not air some.

The reason, it seems, is that a recent spate of murders in Japan, seemingly inspired by the deviant culture Japan secretly wants to hide away from the world, is to blame for the recent spate of murders. To quote Lewis Black, “That is so fucking stupid.”

The media states that the original perp, aged sixteen, female, has been exposed to the deviant culture Japan wants to hide away from the world, and wants to be a manga artist. They deduce that since she is a part of this deviant culture, she must have gotten the idea to kill her father from the very elements that fuel this deviant culture. Again, to quote Lewis Black, “That is so fucking stupid.”

Why is it stupid to blame a deviant culture for influencing the girl’s decision to murder? Because it just is. Maybe it’s because I’m jaded from seeing Jack Thompson prancing around like a monkey doing things no sane and sensible lawyer would do (Jacky boy, it’s bad to share your gay porn with a judge!), but it is just plain stupid to use put the blame on the easiest way out of the solution: on a culture that was spawned because society rejected them.

To deny the effects of the media on people would make me an uninformed buffon. Yes, animation, movies, even the music we hear and the pictures we see, they all have an effect on the human psyche. Even the humble blog, if written with a flair, can evoke feelings in people. However, to blame the media and deny the ills of society, now that’s the dumb part.

If the deviant culture was to blame for her murder, then it is society’s fault for exposing her to this deviant culture (and some would say spawning this culture). It would also be society’s fault that turned her father into a shame upon her family name. And that in turn, we would have to blame the culture of the Japanese for creating the society for making events turn out like this.

However, that is not my point. What a person could be, how that person is raised, how he lives, it all influences the decision the person makes. However, it’s the choice that he or she makes that matters in the end.

Humans are free moral creatures, we were made that way. We shouldn’t be blaming anyone but ourselves for the choces we make. And if we can’t stand up to scrutiny, or are not man enough to accept the consequences of our choices, then it is truly our fault for letting society degenerate into such a state. So don’t go blaming the influence for causing the problem, for indeed, it’s also probable that it’s your fault for not being a positive influence in that person’s life. It’s a form of hypocrisy, blaming other people and things for your own failures and faults. No matter how nicely you put it, it’s still your fault.

Everyone should take a long hard look at ourselves before we even think of deciding who is to blame. Chances are, it’s most likely YOUR OWN FAULT.

Because I love linking to stuff:

• I tank Ben “Yahztee” Croshaw for that “Let’s talk shittyness” line.
• I think we all know who Jack Thompson is.
• And there’s no need to link to all the articles that say about the murders.
• I dunno, something to read.