Blank Generation

So here's to our collagen lips and saline tits
To our growth hormones and antibiotics
To the Hollywood world we made out of Barbie-doll hearts
After we melted them down so we could make a new start
Here's to a generation scared and always wondering why
Instead of playing doctor
We play 'shoot each other and die',
Instead of ring around the rosie we play hide from mommy
Because mommy's been drinking again and we don't wanna get beat
Even with all our tattoos, and all of our cheap thrills
There's still a hole inside of us that will never get filled
So we give back a little bit of what the world's given us
Giving back a bit of never giving a fuck.

Machine Head,
Blank Generation

We're sitting in class at the end of the year, and we're at the end of our History syllabus: The Second World War.
"I feel that watching the footage from Concentration Camps is a sort of voyeurism," said my history teacher when asked why she didn't want to show us any of the footage. I myself have seen hundreds of images and several video clips, not to mention read several accounts of the horrors that went on inside those camps in the 30s and 40s. Therefore, I had an idea of the images we would be watching. She started the tape.

Even I was not prepared for the horror that was developing on the television screen. Prisoners of war so thin that they were merely walking skeletons; devoid of all individuality, conformed to the image the Nazis wanted to give them: something other than human. Bodies of emaciated prisoners flung into ditches like rag-dolls, the look of pure despair and horror on their faces. Tears welled in my eyes (and indeed they still do at the thought of it, merely half an hour after viewing the video in question), but I did not weep. I merely sat there, showing a blank expression on my face, watching the images. The video ended.

They had clamored to watch the video; as soon as they started nagging the teacher, I knew they had no idea of what they were letting themselves into. I expected a few people to be teary, but a general stunned silence to envelop the class. It did not. Five minutes later, they were giggling, laughing and chatting amongst each other.

This is the day my hope for human empathy dies. We are no longer Generation X, we are the Blank Generation. A generation of youth so desensitized by violence that it does not affect us, does not provoke a strong emotion. Violence is glamorized on the Idiot-Box and in Holy-Wood, imposing the idea upon th
e young child that violence is the norm as long as you're killing the bad guys. The lines are very obviously drawn on the TV as to who the "good guys" are and who "the bad guys are". We're creating a generation of young soldiers.

In the United Kingdom, the army recruitment adverts are becoming all the more blatant in the fact that they market themselves toward teenagers. I know that one army recruitment advert shows a soldier piloting a spy plane with an X-Box controller. "Come and join the army, it'll be just like a video-game, just without a reset button!".

Television isn't the only medium we desensitize children to violence, either. In one of his spoken-word pieces, former Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra shows the audience his collection of Desert Storm bubblegum cards (sold without any bubblegum), which features well-known weapons and generals complete with 'batting average'.

So why haven't I gotten to video games? I thought I'd leave them till last in order to transmit this message:

VIDEO GAMES DO NOT KILL PEOPLE.

Sorry, what was that? Maybe you'd like to hear it again.

VIDEO GAMES DO NOT KILL PEOPLE.

"So what does kill people, James?" I hear you ask. Well, I must admit, I kind of left out the other half of the message. And this is the important part.

VIDEO GAMES DO NOT KILL PEOPLE. PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE.

Regardless of what various parents and government officials say, a video game does not make someone go out and kill another person. They desensitize us to violence, but only to a certain extent. I am the proud owner of around seventy PS2 video games including Grand Theft Auto, Resident Evil and Max Payne, yet I have never had the urge to walk into my school and start shooting people.
I always find it amazing how the blame for such incidents is never placed on the parents, and family life is never scrutinized. Is the father beating him? Are his parents getting a divorce? Who the hell cares?! As long as we've got video games and Marilyn Manson to blame, we don't need to look for other explanations. And this, my friends is possibly the worst type of desensitizing out there: the desensitizing of global scrutiny and investigation. People are no longer willing to do a little detective work if they can simply find a scapegoat at the snap of a finger. We are being taught by Fox News pundits such as Hannity and Colmes to center our attention on violent video-games, in order to brainwash us into the pseudo-conservative ideal of "You are free to do and think what we tell you". They are creating generation after Blank Generation by discouraging independent inquiry, urging us to leave it to (fanfare)

THE PROFESSIONALS.

Glory, Glory, Hallelujah.



So think about that the next time you see Mr. White-Collared Conservative on the television. Also, try to teach your children to feel a little empathy, try to avoid another Blank Generation popping out like champagne corks.

As an afterword, I would like to go back to my original reason for writing this. While profoundly shocked by what I witnessed amongst my classmates this morning, I still stand beside my strong conviction that we
should
show students as much of this footage as possible; in order for them to better understand the horrors of human will. The question is; will this desensitize future generations even more? Something to think about when you have a spare moment.



Signing off for now,

James.