There is no Reset

April 20 marks the 11th anniversary of he Columbine massacre. On this day, the normal sounds of a busy high school day were shattered by two disgruntled students who with bullets and bombs snuffed out the lives of both staff and students in this sleepy Colorado town. A question haunts me on this day and t should haunt all of us: Have we learned anything?

The culture of violence is one that we seemingly do not want to shake off. Some of this stems from the very nature of the human psyche. Children all over the world will entertain themselves with games that simulate war and violence. I can well remember playing “war” with my childhood friends (John, Mike, Dana, Darren, Shawn... we all have a list) which included strategy, surprise and ultimately “killing” the enemy. We would often have arguments as to whether or not we “got” someone or not. If you’re looking for someone with an untarnished record, I am not your man.

In spite of that, we seemingly knew our limits. Today’s children also engage in games of conflict, but when I watch young boys at play, I am more apt to see physical engagements that reflect the latest Mixed Martial Arts stars or World Wrestling Entertainment figures. When many boys and young men are not “acting out” these fights (sometimes with very real consequences) they are imitating the daredevil exploits that they observed on a video. When they do return to their homes, their spare time is filled with playing very violent video games that have become all too realistic in their graphic portrayal of the gory side of life. This addiction to violence is further compounded by the ability to publish, in video form, the latest conquest, real or virtual, to the entire world via YouTube and other online video services.

My attitude toward such seemingly benign activities was dramatically altered a number of years ago after reading a book by Lt. Col. David Grossman (Ret.) called “On Killing”. The premise of this tome was that humans are averse to taking another person’s life, especially when they are in close proximity to that other person. In order to make an army an effective killing machine, the humans that make up that army are, in all essence, brainwashed to ignore their innate repulsion of taking another human life and kill anyway.

Lt. Col. Grossman’s argument is that the very methods that are used to train soldiers to kill efficiently and contrary to any internal voice that opposes such violence, are marketed to our youth on a mass scale by the video game and entertainment industry. We are raising (in fact, we have raised) a generation of people, who like the Columbine killers, are saturated daily with thoughts of violence and death.

The irreversible consequences of this trend fill our newscasts every evening and our newspapers on a daily basis. Children are found to be killers and the perpetrators of the most violent and truly unimaginable acts. It seems as if people do not comprehend the irreversible nature of their actions. Perhaps they feel that life can be lived out just like the video games that they are so fond of playing.

The lesson that never seems to be taught, and the one that no one seems willing to teach is that life, unlike those video games, does not have a reset or a restart button.