stefano wrote:...but what I didn't see from a cursory look now is that one of these games, maybe America's Army, had a system where players' scores were tied to their real names and what not, and Army recruiters would visit the best ones and offer them a job. I'm sure we talked about it.
That's a pretty spooky prospect, but what's even more frightening to me is the systematic numbing-down of our collective conscience. Whether it's intentional or not can be debated I suppose (although I'm on the side that is convinced that this is quite intentional at certain levels), but it's displaying itself through many different forms of violent mass media — most especially the "news" — and the utter, unmitigated failure of otherwise balancing, conscience-informing institutions like organized religion.
That this "numbing-down" is actually happening seems undeniable, too. Narcissism, sociopathy, and outright psychopathy appear to be on the rise in our culture. Now I guess it can be argued that violent forms of media are "the effect" rather than "the cause" — and I think there is merit in that, although I consider this too binary of a choice — but it seems to me that what we've got is a feedback loop going, involving several conscience numbing factors. And it's been getting uncomfortably loud for several years now.
