RE: [AML] Do Violent Movies Increase Crime?

Excellent insight about not doing what should be done as a form of
damnation.



Still, ask anyone who is married to a porn addict or gambling addict or any
kind of addict and he or she could tell you about harm in relationships or
financial bankruptcy or physical abuse. That's why people think these things
are bad. If you add doing nothing to complete the circuit you get a more
well-rounded view of the type of harm caused by addictions.



Laura Card



_____

From: aml-list-bounces+laura_card=byu.edu@???
[mailto:aml-list-bounces+laura_card=byu.edu@???] On Behalf
Of Clark Goble
Sent: Wednesday, October 25, 2006 5:08 PM
To: AML Discussion List
Subject: Re: [AML] Do Violent Movies Increase Crime?





On Oct 25, 2006, at 6:56 AM, Alan Mitchell wrote:





I believe our culture has been deceived by the research (?) for the past

half century that pornography is mostly innocuous and a matter of personal

choice. Perhaps not all porn causes rape and homicide, but that doesn't mean

it has any great value to the human race. I take that back, what I meant to

say was that it doesn't have any value at all.



We moved from violence to discussions of pornography pretty fast.



I should note that I'm not saying it is valuable or good. Far, far, from it.
Rather I'm saying that like many other vices some try and portray it as so
deadly that they misportray it. This may in turn cause a counter-productive
backlash. There are plenty of demonstrable problems with all vices. We
needn't create apocalyptic consequences for them.



I don't think gambling has any value at all. It's typically a tax on the
stupid and the poor. But I simultaneously don't think that if some of my
roommates head over to Wendover to play blackjack that they're going to be
inexorably addicted and lose their lives in gambling. Rather I think it
somewhat innocuous but largely a stupid waste of time and money.



If you want my opinion, the greatest evil consequence pornography has is
that it leads people to get their sexual gratification there rather than
with other people. You have all sorts of young men who, rather than facing
failure and the like in dating look to gratification in pornography or even
Sports Illustrated and Victoria's Secret. So they don't have relationships
and they've lost something precious in life. Same with video games. Rather
than taking real risks of trying to make friends and learn social queues
it's easier to play World of Warcraft or XBox Live.



Someone else mentioned it but to me one of the best anti-drug ads I've seen
was that one with the guys using marijuana on the couch. I'm not sure how
much it'll do to prevent teens or young adults from abusing drugs, given
their mentality. But it's one of the greatest truths about drugs I've seen.
The problem wasn't that it led them to become heroin junkies, OD, become
thieves or all the like. Rather they just sat on their couch and did
nothing.



While I don't dispute there are many other evils associated with all these
vices, I think the greatest evil Satan is afflicting our culture with is
apathy. He can keep us sitting around doing nothing - none of the things we
ought be about in this life. And I can guarantee a lot of people will on the
other side of the veil look back at a life of drugs, pornography, video
games, and even TV not because of the evil it made them do but because of
the good it kept them from doing. If damnation in LDS thought is a lack of
progression then these habits are the most effective tool of damnation Satan
has.



Clark