[Cerek the Barbaric]

Yorick - I appreciate your idealism and I agree it would be a better world if we could get every living human to accept the absolute sanctity of every other person's life.

I do find your comments somewhat insulting in one respect, though, in that you seem to be placing the blame for the loss of "sanctity of life" solely on the shoulders of the U.S. Comments such as our history leading to "rampant gun ownership" make it sound as if the devaluation of human life is somehow the fault of America. That's a rather bold implication from someone whose nation began as a penal colony.

I do agree with your thoughts regarding the excessive violence in movies and video games. I've noticed that myself for many, many years. In ANY "action movie", you know before the movie starts that the "hero" will HAVE to kill the bad guy. As that concept became more popular, it wasn't enough for the bad guy to just be killed...no...now the bad guy must die in a very gruesome and painful manner in order to be "paid back" for all the evil they did to the hero. I will agree with you 100% that this is a disturbing trend.

But I simply cannot agree that the devaluation of human life is the fault (or result or whatever) of ANY one society.

As Pikachu has stated (more than once), your idealism is admirable..but it is also impossible to achieve. Because it is an inherent part of human nature that at least some people will NOT value another person's life, regardless of any values, morals, education, or social guidance handed down or enforced by the governing body of that society.

Human violence dates all the way back to Genesis. Long before Hollywood created violent movies, long before guns were even invented (and thier ownership argued over), long before any wars of any type against other nations or tribes, long before there were any of the myriad other social factors that are currently blamed for violence in society. Long before ANY of that ocurred...Abel was struck down and murdered by his own brother out of petty jealousy.

It is a part of human nature and that part (however small) will NOT be removed until after the Second Coming. Then - and only then - will we finally achieve the ideal society of which you speak. I agree that it is noble to strive for that ideal, and there is certainly room for improvement in our current society, but the ultimate goal you seek simply cannot (and will not) be achieved without divine intervention. Until then, we do the best that we can, but we live with the reality that we may have to defend ourselves against those that do not believe in the sanctity of another human's life. [img]graemlins/verysad.gif[/img]