Another black eye for the casual online gamer...

[Jerrel]

I hole heartily agree with Keer on his assesment. I have several asian friends and their parents where born and some grew up in Asia. Honnor is a huge thing there. We here have honor but we veiw it diffrently and dont take it as serriously.

That being said there will be people who will look to this story and say that it is yet more proof of the negative affects or video games have on sosiety. This is a long sung song. In the 1950's the blame was on comics, in the 1980's it was on movies, and in the late 1990's to today it video games with music always filling the gaps. As a history teacher once told be what this runs down to is a fundemental change in society. We saw it happen to the Romans before their fall and we are seeing it hapen to Western civilization today. The Roman move from a guilt culture to a shame culture before the fall of their empire. To day we are in a transitionary stage of moving from a guilt culture to a shame culture to a blame culture. For those of you unclear on my meaning, guilt is when you do something bad you feel bad, shame is when you do something bad then get caught then you feel bad and blame is when you do something bad and get caught you blame some one else. Unfortunatly we have very few people left in socsiety who fall into the guilt catigory, and a majority of people fall into the shame catigory. Now we have a growing number of people falling into the blame catigory and I honestly fear what our world will look like when they are the dominate mind set.

[Skorixor]

Ok, I'm guilty. You caught me reading this thread.

I feel shame for reading such nonsense.

I blame Krusshyk for posting such a crappy thread.

[Li'ith]

Actually, I believe the pendulum is swinging the other way. I think that the 30s to the mid-60s we were in that shame culture; through the 60s to the 90s, we were in a blame culture; now there is a shift occurring back to taking responsibility for one's own actions.

Could be that the vaunted pragmatism of the X-generation is going to undo the pity-me of the Depression Era and the It's-Not-My-Fault of the hippy era?

[Jerrel]

Maybee its cause I live in Los Angeles but I dont see it swingin that way. I constantly hear people blame their parents, cops, government, rich, whites, blacks, you name it I've heard some one blame it.

[Seret Sajet]

When it comes down to cases like this I put aside all notions of society, culture and tradition. Sure our envirnment and upbringing have a major influence on our behavior but what I see in the story like this is just raw human emotion. Humans by nature are fierce creatures capable of the most vile and disgusting things anyone can imagine. Its something we're born with and cannot deny. Its through actual willpower, strength and a sound mind to overcome the killer instinct. Religious folk call it "original sin" while the science crowd call it "primal rage." (Not to be confused with that terrible dinosaur fighting game from the 90's.)

What happened here was a classic case of right and wrong concepts thrown out the window and succumbing to ones rage. This virtual item was important to this person and it was taken away leaving hatred in its place. Society isn't to blame for the actions this man took but rather it was just the breeding ground. Honor and breeding was just there to tell the man it was ok to kill. The killing came from a much darker place.

[Keer]

When it comes down to cases like this I put aside all notions of society, culture and tradition. Sure our envirnment and upbringing have a major influence on our behavior but what I see in the story like this is just raw human emotion. Humans by nature are fierce creatures capable of the most vile and disgusting things anyone can imagine. Its something we're born with and cannot deny. Its through actual willpower, strength and a sound mind to overcome the killer instinct. Religious folk call it "original sin" while the science crowd call it "primal rage." (Not to be confused with that terrible dinosaur fighting game from the 90's.)

What happened here was a classic case of right and wrong concepts thrown out the window and succumbing to ones rage. This virtual item was important to this person and it was taken away leaving hatred in its place. Society isn't to blame for the actions this man took but rather it was just the breeding ground. Honor and breeding was just there to tell the man it was ok to kill. The killing came from a much darker place.

If so, then how would ritual suicide in face of lost honor factor into your theory? Many cultures practice this.

If human nature was the determining force, then would not the built-in human survival instinct negate honor suicides?

Honor suicides aren't part of human primality. That's all upbringing and culture there.

[Seret Sajet]

Ask yourself what makes people hold honor so dear that they would take their own life to preserve it. The answer is pride. Pride in one's self, pride in one's family, or pride in one's culture or beliefs. Pride is a basic human condition.

Pride is everything. Its dignity, self-respect, sense of achievement, possession or association. Pride is also vanity, arrogance, or conceit. It can be defined as both one of the seven deadly sins or someone's greatest quality. Good or bad it exists in all of us. There is no denying we have some level of it and for some it is greater than any other emotion in their hearts.

So when your beliefs are so strong that pride may be lost you will take your own life in the hopes that your pride will be restored in some sort of afterlife. Ritual suicide doesn't happen because their culture told them it was what they had to do. They happen because enough people get together and feel their pride is lost unless they take that step.

But as I failed to mention this last time allow me to say it for both of my posts this time. This is just my opinion.