Recently we have seen a number of incidents of unprovoked murder and terror in Canada and the U.S. The two incidents involving Canadian military have been linked to international terrorism. Should we be looking closer to home for a possible underlying cause?
A large number of young people are being conditioned to sociopathic behaviour, by the increasing amount of extremely violent and realistic video games, movies and TV shows. The numbers of young people who have access to the most gruesome ‘entertainment’ are staggering.
The video game industry brings in nearly $12 billion a year in North America and about 20 per cent of video games are violent ‘shooter’ games. According to statistics, nearly one in five young minds are engaging in some form of aggressive, cyber killing, with some of them spending up to seven hours a day, playing at blowing people apart.
The really scary part of this picture is that the one with the most kills is the winner. It doesn’t take rocket science to make the link between a disturbed, anti-social young person participating in violent computer games; and Isis and al Qaeda terrorist groups recruiting people to kill.
The lucrative killing for entertainment industry should give their collective heads a shake. With easy access to guns or other weapons, North America could potentially have thousands of ticking time-bombs in basements and back rooms, well trained and conditioned to enter the real world.
Trevor WicksQualicum Beach
