I'm writing about violent video games and the culture of violence right now. 

At this moment, there are two video games sitting a red plastic bag from Toys R Us – Call of Duty and Halo 4 – and I just can't decide if I should return them to the store or if I should wrap them up for Christmas for Jonah. 

By "culture of violence" I don't just mean boy culture, which is dominated by guns. Kids who play with those toys and guns don't end up as psycho killers. They just don't. But those guns and games are part of a bigger problem than surrounds all of us. It's more about the absense of kindness. And that impacts the girls, too, who feel coerced to dress certain ways and are shunned by the popular girls who demand a certain level of conformity.

I was most struck by the "Adam Lanza mother" article not by the fact that she thought her son could be a psycho killer, but the fact that she felt entirely ALONE as she grappled with a children with special needs. Where were the social supports for this family? Again, the absence of kindness.

At this moment, it's worth watching this video by Ta-Nehisi Coates talking about football and Clifford Geertz's Balinese cockfighting article. I posted it back in September and I'm still thinking about it. 

 

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/271557391