I'm sure that everyone on this site is concerned about the whole issue of using video games as a scapegoat for pretty much everything that goes wrong in America. Kids shooting up schools? Must be Doom's fault. A couple of block-headed jackasses randomly firing Dad's shotgun and hitting the driver of a car? GTA. A horrible massacre at a southern college? That's all down to Counter-Strike, even though the shooter never played it, CT is still to blame since it's a video game and therefore a horrid pit of depravity and violence. Increases in spousal abuse and other forms of domestic violence? Must be Cooking Mama's fault. We've all seen more people railing about the evils of video games than I'm sure we'd care to count. From Jack Thompson on down to that crazy woman that lives on your block who tells you every time you play Postal, God kills a baby seal with a pipe wrench. The sad part of it is that almost this exact thing has happened before, and if human nature is any indication, it will happen again.

I'm getting close to the end of the book The Ten Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How it Changed America by David Hajdu. It's an interesting read, but time and time again while reading about something in history I didn't know much about, but am interested in as a geek, I was struck by the parallels to the current flap over games. They had everything then that we have now; hysterical parents and parents' groups, politicians going on a blizzard of law-passing sprees, some of which were later struck down as unconstitutional, constant claims that comics are a leading cause of juvenile delinquency, and the labeling of those that enjoy the medium as either children or idiots. Hell, they even had a media-whoring "expert" that was taken far too seriously by many people who made outrageous arguments that he backed up with pseudo-science, half-truths and scare tactics. Does all this sound familiar? Yeah, I thought so too. Let's just hope that this time, the whole debate doesn't end with the industry backing down and imposing crippling and puritanical self-censorship on its own product, leading to hundreds of people losing their jobs and never being able to work in their chosen field again . I'd like to think that won't happen, but there are times when I have my doubts.

It's been said again and again that those that don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Well, reading The Ten Cent Plague, it's obvious that we haven't learned a goddamn thing. Like I said in the title of this post, it's the same story, it's just a different cast. Movies, Pulp Novels, Comics, Rock and Roll, and now Video Games. How many times are we going to have to through the same bullshit before reality sinks through peoples' terminally thick skulls and we can break the cycle? I don't know, but I'm guessing how ever many more times they can squeeze it in before the end of time itself.

Do I have some amazing secret method to break the cycle? No, I don't. If I did, I'd be out using it, if for nothing else than to try and raise the collective intelligence level of the human race at least a little bit. What I guess I'm saying here is this. Someday, gamers will be parents, executives, perhaps even politicians. When some new form of entertainment comes around that people start claiming is destroying America's youth, don't just go blindly along with the herd. Try and remember the frustration that you're feeling now about how a lot of people didn't give the hobby that you love its fair shake, and didn't bother to learn about it before condemning it. Basically, try and learn from all this. When this cycle starts again, which let's face it, it most likely will, before you attack something your children are doing, educate yourselves about it. Then if you still don't agree with it, then fine. Don't let your kids do it. But at the same time try to remember that there are other parents out there that won't share your opinions on 7D Holographic BlitzRollerBrainBall, or whatever that new hobby is. I doubt it would stop the cycle, but maybe it would lead to it slowing down just a little bit, leaving the way open for future generations to actually do something about the Infinite Loop of idiocy that the human race seems to be caught in. Not likely perhaps but hey, a man can dream, can't he?

Besides, when I take my grandkids to the store in 30 or so years, I'd rather not see the book Digital Depravity: The Great Video Game Debate and How it Changed America One More Time, With Feeling.