Garbage in, Garbage puked out over all society. - The video game industry and those excited about huge profits in the finance industry are all agog over the latest installment of "Grand Theft Auto IV".
Having once worked in the retail side of the video game industry for more years then I care to remember, I have long since proclaimed the dangers and depths of depravity that the industry is delving into which are impacting our society.
Matthew Cullinan Hoffman has a notable commentary over at LifeSiteNews.com that is worth reading, particularly if your a parent with video game playing kids.
The debut of "Grand Theft Auto IV", a highly-realistic video game in which players "win" by committing violent criminal acts, is notable for several reasons, but most importantly because of what it says about a society that is engaged in an orgy of self-destruction, and cannot even recognize what is happening.
The Grand Theft Auto series makes the player into a criminal who wins points by stealing cars, assassinating rivals, killing police, running over pedestrians, and even murdering a prostitute with a baseball bat rather than paying her. It is, in short, a game that glorifies brutal criminality and enables players to fantasize their participation in mind-numbing barbarism.
Hoffman notes how one video game player waiting in line to get a copy reacted to the big release day of the game. The gamer stabbed a passer-by. You can read about that episode on the Telegraph.
Not to be out done by Londoners, I suppose, another punk in San Diego attacked store clerks on the big release day of the game. Mercury News has that story.
What does the Scripture offer as advice when it comes to our entertainment choices? Here's a good verse worth looking into:
“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things.” (Php 4:8 NIV)
The Great Separation continues.
