You know, if the PTC was really doing it for the kids, I might be able to sympathize with their views, if not necessarily their goals.
The problem is that I'm not convinced that they're really doing it for the kids.
No...I'm of the belief that they're doing it all based upon hyperpartisan, inflammatory, fearmongering newsmedia, provoking the ignorant masses of insecure parents by threatening them with the loss of perceived control over their kids.
Think of it this way:
1. The parents believe that they may tell their kids to do anything, and the kids must obey, or be punished. Due to this, the parents have an illusion of control over their kids (who will still defy them behind their backs, much of the time).
2. This position of perceived power means that they don't believe that they must spend time getting to know their kids. They don't spend time talking to them as people, learning about their forming perceptions and beliefs. Rather, the child is just another piece of property that doesn't always do what it's told, and must be coerced into doing so (percussive maintenance, anyone?).
3. On some level, the parents are savvy enough to know that their position of power is only a tenuous one.
4. The newsmedia also knows that, and so, at the behest of special interest groups (the members of which probably don't...erm...take enough romantic vacations, per-se), they stir up a storm of fearmongering to inflame these insecure parents into believing that - among other things, such as that their friends smoke pot and that their teachers just want to feel them up, and that the kids are always going to be okay with both - video games will turn them into serial rapist/killers with a penchant for shooting up their schools and driving like they're on crack.
5. The parents, their illusory positions of power now threatened, band together in search of an enemy to smite. The newsmedia makes a Strawman of the video game industry (and all of its supporters), and rallies forth the now-enraged masses to go burn it down.
WolfEdge said:
God it's Jack Thompson all fucking over again!
Flamezdudes said:
The people who are crazy get the most attention...
Yeah, pretty much.
Here's another thing: there's no reasoning with these folks. They aren't operating off of any sort of logic that holds up under sufficient examination, so fighting back with Logos isn't going to work. While it's tempting at first to try to fight through Ethos, that's never going to work, as no force is more powerful or less reasonable than righteous indignation and a holier-than-thou attitude, and nothing stokes the fire like insinuations - or, even moreso, outright claims - of hypocrisy among their ranks.
No. They assembled under a Pathos play, and while we might not be able to beat them with that, we might be able to hold them off. We just have to make way more noise than they are, or make their position into a Strawman all its own to help with that. Sure, fighting Fire with Fire never works (at least, not in the long run), but if the first person to shut up loses...well, it's worth a shot, isn't it? It's better than just throwing them another concession so they'll think they've won and will back off. That tactic didn't work in the early days of WWII, and it certainly won't work here now.
Here's the only way we're going to make them back down:
Resist. Get mad about it, get other folks mad about it. Get everyone you can on board, and take on the banner of the VGVN or the ECA or somebody else like that. If we make enough noise, we'll let them know that we're not going to back down this time.
That's my take on it.
I do, however, apologize for making it so long. I was originally just going to keep it down to a paragraph or two, but...
