America, more so than any other nation that is free from the grips of war, is a violent one. Sociologists have been trying to determine the reason for this for a number of years. What can this be ascribed to? How is it that the most affulent nation is the most dangerous during times of domestic peace?
Your assignment is to analyze the elements taht contribute to this terrible manifestation. What is their affect on the psychology of Americans? What may be different in this country than perhapes England, Germany, or France? All three of these industrial cultures are predominatly Anglo-Saxton and each nation shares similar technologies. Please do not dwell on the acts of violence but instead consider the cause. Is there a remedy?
Opinions, facts, and debates welcomed!
Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite. - John Kenneth Galbraith
And England currently has the highest crime rate in the world.
Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite. - John Kenneth Galbraith
You have no enemy to kills, so we turn on ourselves. I blame the soccer moms.
Think about it... what pisses people off more than anything else? Other people telling them how to live their lives, raise their families, and what should be accepted or not. And SUVs. SUVs piss me off.
In times of peace, most people have nothing better to do than to tell others how to live. Eventually it makes people mad, and anger begets violence.
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Frog stumbled drunkenly to the keyboard and typed:
And doubly amusing, England is listed as a country to compare us to because they're similar to us and we're supposed to be more like them or something.And England currently has the highest crime rate in the world.
I thought that was Australia and the English were in second place. After all, the Aussies are descendants of convicts.
On another note, America isn't even on the top ten list of the world's most violent countries.
Take a bunch of guns and handmade explosives to your high school and start slaughtering other teenagers? Awww you were picked on.
Rape your girlfriend? You have issues dealing with women because your Mommy didn't hold you enough.
Run your husband over with your car, drive AROUND THE FUCKING HOTEL AND DO IT AGAIN TWICE? It was a moment of heated anger because he was cheating on you.
In earlier generations, people had to take responsibility. Every generation has their atrocious crimes, their serial killers. Dillinger got shot to hell in a movie theater. Bonnie and Clyde's death car has more holes in it than swiss cheese. Charlie Manson's still doing time and will til the day he does. Ted Bundy and Jeff Dahmer got the death penalty. But they shocked the nation because their crimes were so horrifically audacious. They didn't get off with their crimes.
Chances are, though, that there's some mitigating reason why you gunned down, ran over, raped, mutilated, dismembered, minced, and devoured whatever victim you may have. At least according to the legal system today. Make a deal. People who deal drugs do more time than murderers.
Plus support for the powers that be continues to diminish. Two of the worst paid public servant positions are cops and teachers. One protects the public, the other guarantees the quality of living for the public from an early age. Talk about ass-backwards priorities. [ 01-29-2003: Message edited by: Ja'Deth Issar Ka'bael ]
sigpic courtesy of This Guy, original modified by me
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Check out the big brain on Ja'Deth Issar Ka'bael!
Plus support for the powers that be continues to diminish. Two of the worst paid public servant positions are cops and teachers. One protects the public, the other guarantees the quality of living for the public from an early age. Talk about ass-backwards priorities.
Amen to that, Deth!
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This insanity brought to you by Ja'Deth Issar Ka'bael:
Two of the worst paid public servant positions are cops and teachers. One protects the public, the other guarantees the quality of living for the public from an early age. Talk about ass-backwards priorities.
Not my english teacher, apparently, because he's always ranting about how he loves his job. And his money.
He says its a good time to go to college to be a teacher, as 60+% are going to be retiring in the next 5 years.
And job security is great, as you are managing the worlds sole resource that is fun to make. [ 01-29-2003: Message edited by: Tegadil ]
People just look at the big numbers and immediately scream about how violent it is. But they don't look at the RATES. The rate is the important thing. America has a big number of violent crimes because we have more people than any country besides China and India. But in actuality, it's a very small percentage of crime.
Say you have a village of 10,000 people, and 1,000 of them are murdered. Then you have a village of 100 people and 99 of them are murdered, the only survivor being the last person to kill someone.
Anyone above the age of two can tell you 1,000 is more murders than 99, and most wannabe experts and political analysts stop there, when in fact the place where 99% of the population was murdered is a far more violent place.
Tell your teacher to /gofuk and go the other way with the assignment and talk about America's steady down trend of violence over the last decade and our sterling example, England's, steady raise.
And while you're at it tell her to buy some school books that weren't written with assignments from 1972.
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Mr.Crabs Loves His Money said this about your mom:
I thought that was Australia and the English were in second place. After all, the Aussies are descendants of convicts.On another note, America isn't even on the top ten list of the world's most violent countries.
The UN did a survey in early 2002 and England was number one in every single violent crime category.
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Tegadil had this to say about Punky Brewster:
Not my english teacher, apparently, because he's always ranting about how he loves his job. And his money.He says its a good time to go to college to be a teacher, as 60+% are going to be retiring in the next 5 years.
And job security is great, as you are managing the worlds sole resource that is fun to make.
Being a teacher isn't something you go into lightly. Teaching has one of the highest burnout/turnover rates of any non-military and non-police-related careers. You can't go into it thinking "hey I get all my health costs paid AND I get summers off free!"
Some school systems in better-off states are able to offer incentives for teachers (financial perks, mostly). Most, however, are coming up against a conflict. They all want better test scores, but unfortunately for the past 20 years, a lot of school systems have populated their schools with teachers with no actual college graduate degree. They get certified in the state's teacher's certification and teach with that. It's not good enough anymore, but most school systems want to hire college graduates who can do more and are more likely to stick with the job for the same amount of money they pay teachers who are, frankly, generally less motivated and inferior teachers (note I said "generally").
Don't let anyone con you. Teachers and cops, for what they do, are still severely under-funded, especially in the South.
sigpic courtesy of This Guy, original modified by me
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The logic train ran off the tracks when Lazadriel said:
America, more so than any other nation that is free from the grips of war, is a violent one.
Let your professor know that I'm chuckling, and calling him a flat out liar.
It's wonderful how educators can make such ignorant "leaps" of logic without a shred of evidence.
Ask him if he learned his teaching methods from the original Batman series. [ 01-29-2003: Message edited by: Maradon XP ]
In 2000, the most recent statistics I could find without looking too hard, we had 5.5 murders per 100,000 people.(Which, for the record, is the lowest it's been since 1965.)
Oooo.. we sure are violent! [ 01-29-2003: Message edited by: Frog ]
[ 01-29-2003: Message edited by: Frog ]
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Maradon XP wrote this then went back to looking for porn:
Ask him if he learned his teaching methods from the original Batman series.
I dunno if it's just being sick or what but I almost spit my drink at the monitor from laughing at that.
Lyinar Ka`Bael, Piney Fresh Druidess - Luclin
This should die.
People are by nature competitive, aggressive, and violent. In any world, these are the traits that dominate, and we posess them in abudance. Your teacher expects a couple years of schooling and a pleasant childhood to undo 20,000 years of Darwinian selection, and make tame pets from feral hunters? He's dreaming if he ever expects Humans to become nonviolent, and i hope to God we never do, because as soon as we lose the drive to kill, we'll be slaughtered by a species that doesn't mind getting bloodied.
No, Really. Bite me.
We have it so awful darned good in America. I wonder why people are so mean!? It must be because of violent video games which I don't play [Consider the perspective of the person posing the question] or the guns I've never touched. Since I don't use them there must not be any problem in limiting other people using them, and wouldn't the world be such a better place.
Expand on that, send it through the Kagraminator™, and they'll beat a path to your door.
Be well, John Spartan [ 01-29-2003: Message edited by: Iulius Kæsar ]
We're not THAT non violent. 
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Frog said this about your mom:
I did some checking up out of boredom, after I got that rant out of my system.In 2000, the most recent statistics I could find without looking too hard, we had 5.5 murders per 100,000 people.(Which, for the record, is the lowest it's been since 1965.)
Oooo.. we sure are violent!
Do you have links to any of these statistics? For use in the blibiographimoojig!
Do it. It's like a free 300 points.
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The logic train ran off the tracks when Gadani Beatum`Stik said:
yea, 5.5 murders per 100,000 people. would be nice. hehe
well, in 2001, canada had 554 total murders, which translates to 1.84 murders per 100,000 people. The only reason i bring it up is to demonstrate that the original figure of 5.5 murders per 100,000 is actually correct for the USA. (in 2001, they had a 5.7 / 100,000 rate)
No, it's not a plug for canada, i just noticed it. So back the fuck down all you people that are going to say "stfu anti-american ass"
No, Really. Bite me.
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Mr.Crabs Loves His Money had this to say about Knight Rider:
I thought that was Australia and the English were in second place. After all, the Aussies are descendants of convicts.On another note, America isn't even on the top ten list of the world's most violent countries.
Yeah, I'm thinking some rather violent thoughts right now. You'd laugh if you saw them.. well, maybe not you.
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When the babel fish was in place, it was apparent Frog said:
I find it annoying when people talk about how violent America is. We currently have one of the lowest crime rates(according to a UN census in 2002. I think there were only two countries with a lower rate) in the world.People just look at the big numbers and immediately scream about how violent it is. But they don't look at the RATES. The rate is the important thing. America has a big number of violent crimes because we have more people than any country besides China and India. But in actuality, it's a very small percentage of crime.
Say you have a village of 10,000 people, and 1,000 of them are murdered. Then you have a village of 100 people and 99 of them are murdered, the only survivor being the last person to kill someone.
Anyone above the age of two can tell you 1,000 is more murders than 99, and most wannabe experts and political analysts stop there, when in fact the place where 99% of the population was murdered is a far more violent place.
Tell your teacher to /gofuk and go the other way with the assignment and talk about America's steady down trend of violence over the last decade and our sterling example, England's, steady raise.
And while you're at it tell her to buy some school books that weren't written with assignments from 1972.
--Satan, quoted by John Milton
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Black Mage had this to say about Tron:
I did some checking up out of boredom, after I got that rant out of my system.This should die.
wut
Thinking about your posts
(and billing you for it) since 2001
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This insanity brought to you by Judge Gydyon:
wut
I double posted that and Black Mage thought he was funny by copying it for a third post lolololololololz
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Frog had this to say about Reading Rainbow:
And doubly amusing, England is listed as a country to compare us to because they're similar to us and we're supposed to be more like them or something.And England currently has the highest crime rate in the world.
Just FYI, I'm no expert but from what I understand (and I'm fairly cynical myself..) that's mostly to do with how we record crime here. Since we switched to a new system (which no one else has) crime rates have been going up simply because more are designated as 'violent' etc.
In reality, it's not much worse than it ever has been.. now drugs, that's a different matter altogether (we have too damn many )
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Frog had this to say about Knight Rider:
I double posted that and Black Mage thought he was funny by copying it for a third post lolololololololz
THAT'S HILARIOUS!!!!!!
Thinking about your posts
(and billing you for it) since 2001
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Niklas painfully thought these words up:
Just FYI, I'm no expert but from what I understand (and I'm fairly cynical myself..) that's mostly to do with how we record crime here. Since we switched to a new system (which no one else has) crime rates have been going up simply because more are designated as 'violent' etc.
The UN went and did their own independant thing. They looked at the number of murders, rapes, robberies, assaults, that sort of thing. They didn't take already created tables showing violent crimes, they decided themselves what was 'violent' and used it across the board, to stop things like what you described from happening.
Now just build on that and you'll have an essay.
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Quoth the mog, nevermore:
OH NO, doom has corupted me, i shall bring my keybored to school and hit ctrl while facing poepleMUAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Oh, how I love that quote.
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How.... G.L. Ryuujin.... uughhhhhh:
Video Games desensitize people, but the ones that bring it to real life were fucked up to begin with.Now just build on that and you'll have an essay.
Actually all forms of modern media desensitize youth today. In fact you can watch the downward spiral over the last decade or so. I mean if you look back a few years, showing blood on TV was taboo, feminine hygenics, condoms, etc were all taboo. The horror genre has exploded and taken a turn into realism with the advances in effects you cant very well tell the difference from fact and fiction anymore.
I can name the last time I was ever scared by any movie to date, and that was when I watched the original "Jaws" so many years ago.. (So bad I couldn't sleep with my feet and hands off the side of the bed cause the shark would get me. 
I still unconciously do that...But after that time in my life, and with horror being a relative new thing, and unexplored much previous it was frightening. It hasn't been since.
Thats just the way it is today. Now compound on top of that that we live in a generation where those who are teens have ex-yuppie parents for the most part who had a chance to excell in most cases and took a turn to reject, because they chose comfort, most convential ways in dealing with children. There has been a rise in soccer mom mentality, Tipper Gore fanbois, general all around "You can't run your life, or your childrens lives correctly so we are going to tell you how to do it thr right way, or else we'll find a hundred different ways for making your life a living hell just to prove we think we know better than we actually do."
Parents are afraid to be parents, or those parents are too immature to actually be parents these days because THEY weren't taught how to handle responcibility, or any number of other reasons why parents today are either afraid or inattentive when it comes to thier children. If left to thier own devices, with thier own innocent logic running things, the media will deffinitely lend to violent behaviour in children/pre-teens/teens, and with no fear of authority since the school system no longer has an arm for discipline, and law enforcement practices as well as common justice is laughable ( No offence Gyd, you know what I mean. 
The "Oh, I'm suing you McDonalds cause your cheeseburgers made me fat!" crap.", and a hundred other examples of flawed legal actions.
Until more definitetive punishments are enforced, or schools are once again given some amount of disciplinary control, and parents are once again forced to be responcible for thier children it won't improve much. The good news is, my generation are parents now, and although we are by no means perfect, we are for the most part retaking the old ways of parenting back into effect. Mainly because we lived a calmer period, and we saw what happened when we left it behind, that we fear for our own children unless we do something to curb the trend.
But to the main point, although media on it's own contributes to violent behaviour developing, it only developes when there are underlying problems and/or no one is there to "teach" them better.
And that whole, "But Johnny was such a goodboy when he was growing up!" whiny parent crap needs to stop.
