Sandy Hook and Star Craft

There have been many school shootings all over the world for the past one hundred and fifty years. While I cannot deny that they are on the increase in nominal terms, both in frequency and in death toll, if one considers the population growth over that time frame and measure incidents per person it would be a more more stable figure, it may well even be in decline. The frequency has remained more constant over the time period and it tends to be the death toll which is rising which could be attributed to technological developments just as easily as social ones. Even if school shootings are on a relative decline it is not fast enough. Each has had the impact of a once in a life time tragedy such as the Twin Towers yet the memory of Dunblane was still vivid when Colombine occurred. Being British our media is highly focused on UK and US events but the rest of the world has had its fair share as well with Germany having two double digit death toll school shootings since the new millennium. The Sandy Hook shootings in the latter part of last year being from America were getting a lot of media attention which brought the memories and feelings back yet again. It is profoundly sad yet also exasperating. Most crimes are unpleasant, most tragedies seem cruel and senseless yet most crimes have motive and most tragedies have at least an explanation. Where one cannot see motive or reason there can be no solution and this was how I felt about school shootings.

The school shootings where a single person was shot are more likely to have been like any other shooting and with much of the same fathomable motives, just located at a school and so bolstering the figures. It is the incidents where people indiscriminately shoot at anyone that are most concerning as they are so abhorrent yet so seemingly insoluble. While struggling with the problem as to why people would commit such a atrocious act it hit me like one of those hidden image visual tricks that you stare at until you lose focus and a three dimensional shape emerges from the page. The problem itself was the reason, it is simply because it is so atrocious that people are drawn to it, like climbing the highest mountain. Shooting up a school indiscriminately is about the most damaging, inhumane, immoral and cruel act that can be easily achieved by people without control over armies or munitions stock piles. It is an act of individual terrorism against society that lashes out hitting everyone around them. Should a person become removed enough from society to feel both isolated and persecuted then they could harbour enough hatred to take action and would not be fettered by morality, only motivated by impact. It is because schools are such an obvious target in terms of ease for effect that they are a social weak spot which means that there will be those that try to exploit it. Does this mean we need to increase security in schools? No, probably not, it would be very hard and expensive to make it effective and would then only shift the most viable targets to shopping precincts or theme parks.

It is not helped that the media lay all the cards on the table and show the world what a devastating blow it is to society. This in effect showcases the idea to others, which is the best solution I can find as to why there are so many recurrences of school shootings. Does this imply we should censor the media? No, probably not again. Censorship is an ugly business and in these situations it would seem to somehow deny the grief of those who lost people. Censorship is also more likely to make people mistrust and fear the state which in itself would help create an environment where people are more likely to want to damage society. While advertising the idea of a school shooting is not great it is far better than the alternative which is a world of more secrets and less freedoms. Free speech, as with any freedom, comes with dangers and responsibilities which we have not yet mastered. This however is no reason to about turn on an important principle.

It is all to easy to blame the media for many of the modern social ills but one of the downsides of a democracy is that you must reap what you sow. The media only provide what we want, capitalism ensures this, if media is successfully pandering to our more base interests then it is we who are weak and immoral and not them. The media may help to enable us and our morbid lusts but we the people are very much the primary enabler in that relationship. To solve the media problem we need to go far deeper and improve the whole of society so that they no longer are able to sucker us in with sinister details, tribalism, figures to hate and sensationalism. I am not suggesting that in an “improved society” such events as school shootings would not be broadcast due to a lack of interest nor am I suggesting that it is immoral to take an interest in a horrific event. I believe the opposite in fact, that open information and an empathic sharing of grief is a great aid in the healing and improving process both on a personal and social level. I am simply trying to illustrate that the media, while far from helpful, is not a single solution to stopping school shootings.

One area I do still hold the media both responsible and in contempt is factual accuracy or simply the reporting of opinion as if they were facts. In the recent Sandy Hook school shooting a major American news network suggested that Star Craft II could be in part responsible for the culprits actions. The idea that any game really makes people more violent in real life is fairly thin and frankly laughable but the idea that Star Craft II is making people more violent is like saying the same about chess. The painful irony is that Star Craft is preventing far more school shootings than it is inducing. Criminal satires that are said to glorify violence such as Grand Theft Auto tend to be light relief played casually or with friends in private. Star Craft however has a huge community and following. It is a way young people can meet and interact with like minded folk and share in something where they are accepted. There are professional tournaments going on all over the world and conventions where players can transcend the online communities by seeing each other in the flesh. There are big stars and the all important fans and then there are sponsors who provide the money to fuel much of this. Unsurprisingly it is both quite a geeky community and quite a young one too however this makes them highly accepting of others and the perfect environment for the more disenfranchised youths in society. Most people are entirely unaware that all this goes on and would be amazed at what they found if the delved into the hidden worlds of the less mainstream social communities. Players winning hundred of thousands of dollars and being revered like sports legends complete with thousands of people looking unusually comfortable in themselves. Although I am not really involved in the Star Craft scene I have been fortunate enough to be involved in a very similar one for a card game called Magic the Gathering. Being a part of the Magic scene is one of the most instrumental and significant parts of who I am, it provided valuable support and experience and it allowed me to meet some of my dearest friends. There are huge cultural benefits to being part of a global scene as well, especially one that is friendly and accepting by nature. I am not good in social situations, the less well I know people and the larger the group the worse I find the experience. At a Magic tournament I am surrounded by hundreds, perhaps thousands of other Magic players and I am completely at home, able to hold a conversation with anyone as if I had known them all my life. Having personal experience of how such a community helped me in so many aspects of my life and knowing that it has done the same for so many others makes me highly defensible when they are demonized or stigmatised by more mainstream culture. It is not only morally unsavoury to implicate things we know very little about in atrocities but it is very damaging to the growth of the communities. If parents see media coverage condemning an activity they are far more likely to stop their children from getting involved. This will deny them the opportunity to find alternate communities within society that might best suit them. This in turn could lead to them becoming the kind of isolated disenfranchised individual that could massacre a school.

As a society we are rather hypocritical when it comes to the youth, either we forgot what it was like being young or we convince ourselves times have changed enough that children need treating very differently. We try to shield the young from drugs and sex and other dangerous freedoms however we do relatively little in the way of alternatives. Being young is about trying things and making mistakes so that you may be a wise and sensible adult with valuable life experience. In the early teens we go from being children to wannabe adults. You see this transformation in many animals too. We poke around trying out grown up things for size trying to gauge where we fit in to the world and what sort of person we are. As a society we seem to quash many of the opportunities teenagers might have to do much of this valuable growing.

While I offer no single solution to preventing school shootings I strongly believe that the various non mainstream communities represent one of the best buffers we have against it. They are less known and harder to stumble into than the more obvious communities within society and need all the help they can get in promoting their existence and benefits. The internet is helping many of these communities grow but there are also some concerns that the internet is contributing to the feeling of isolation within society. The kicker for the gaming communities is that they encourage events such as tournaments and conventions where people travel too and meet in person. They get the best of both worlds, lots of people with lots of connections all without distance constraints from the internet complete with real social intercourse and cultural experience all with the protective fall-back of the activity in question. They are the the kinds of community that are most likely to be suitable for those feeling isolated within a more mainstream environment and therefore are more important than things like baseball clubs and school discos for preventing internal attacks

upon society. The cultural idea of the geek has changed, or more the emotional response the concept of a geek evokes. Within my lifetime it has gone from being a label that comes with some stigma to being an acceptable norm. While the geek might be recognisable based on appearance cultural acceptance has not gone quite as far as the activities of the geek, or other similar term. Most would probably say that geeks do stuff on computers which might well be accurate but is hardly specific. It is no longer the label of the geek that comes with stigma attached but rather the activities that they are more likely to do. The media rather than fuelling current popular opinion on games would be doing society a big favour if it kept to facts and relevant information. Perhaps even going out on a limb and showing what a positive force these underground communities can be for our under catered for youth would be one of the best things a media outlet could do to make up for years of blame.

The internet has helped bring small pockets of gamers together into large worldwide communities but it is also having some rather significant effects on the physical world. It is changing our town centres, certain shops are becoming obsolete and others are taking their place. I have spoken a lot about the merits of having activities suitable for youths and promoting underground communities. One of the best places for both of these things is the local games shop which not only sells a wide array of different gaming products all with their own associated communities but also serves as a meeting and mingling place for people of all ages. They are typically places to play games first and shops second, often they have back rooms or upstairs where tables and chairs fill the room purely to play games. They provide real social interaction and activities within a safe environment and serve as a gateway into bigger more global communities. Games shops offer society a service by providing what is essentially the equivalent of a pub or bar for gamers. The internet however is a better place to get gaming products from and so these shops are losing business. Games are not consumable like alcohol. If the shop fails then with it goes the places to meet and socialise. Personally I think such places are so valuable to society that I would subsidize them centrally to ensure people always had a local games shop to go and play games in regardless of where people bought their games. As I am not in charge of government spending I instead vote with my wallet and support my local business. I buy all my games from my local shop instead of online in the hope it will keep its doors open till 10pm most nights, have enough interest to keep putting on events, to keep its store copies of games up to date and have enough floor space to allow for at least thirty gamers to freely play games. One of the best instances to shop local is the games store because of all the incidental benefits that they bring with them and so I dedicate this article to Clifton Road Games for helping to improve society and preventing acts of social terrorism.