Gaming, Slashdot Article, & US High School Shootings

ChungKing

Hi all,

I got sent this url (by my DAD under the title 'DONT MISS THIS SPELLBINDING ARTICLE & MAILS' I might add):

slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/04/25/1438249

It's a slashdot article - a MUST READ if you give a damn about gaming & kids & all the stuff going on in america following the columbine high school shootings.

If not, stop reading here

Basically it's an editorial by the slashdot guy, on the aftermath of the shootings & how the real issue isn't how games are turning kids into killers, but that, after the shootings, the 'alienated/different kids' are being even more alienated, abused, and tormented. The article includes some pretty scary emails from such kids.

Now, I have irish parents & grew up going to schools in denmark and spain & my last 2.5 years of school were in an american high school in minnesota before coming to college in dublin. Let me tell ya, it was a fuppin harrowing experience. And I was a lucky guy.

Basically, no one knew what to make of me on arriving - I was of normal size, normal looks. Dressed normal. Had no horrid disfigurement. Wasn't fat. All I mean by this is that there was no obvious way to categorise me or to pick on me. And the movies are real - US high school has a class system more similar in it's rigidity and harshness to the indian caste system of old (which still exists to many extents), than the tired british one. Jocks, geeks, fries (druggies), popular group, elite group, band group, blah blah- they all exist and inter-group relations are not good.

So - arriving, wondering where the hell I should be, I tried some sports, but wasn't good enough to be a 'jock'. Wasn't into computers at all then. Didn't take drugs - liked beer & missed the bars of Madrid & hated the tyranny of the american 21 system. Plus, here I was talking about places like Madrid, Copenhagen, dublin - I still remember the glazed look in their eyes. They had no idea, so I escaped much of the torments of life there. My best friend was a new arrival from st. louis & even tho he was wealthy & good looking & dressed in label clothes - it still took him 1.5 years to be accepted by the 'popular' (read reasonably normal) group. He wasn't trying out to join & didn't give much of a damn, but these people were the ones most like us & still there was this 'vetting' going on in the background. I got tentative acceptance about the same time as him - what this means is that we both avoided the 'hazing' going on & eventually started getting invited to parties & having a chance with some of the girls, etc.

So - my point is :

If you've read this far & are interested, read the article - it's good and creepy (the fascist undertones of US life - not the kids)
If you are a non-conformist, computer geek or otherwise 'different', be thankful you missed a world of sh1te that most US schools offer... (tho I understand Irish schools offer their own world, but that's another topic for discussion)

cheers,

chungking

[This message has been edited by ChungKing (edited 07-05-99).]

EM Kodiak

I know all about the kinda crap ye go thruogh in american schools. I went to school in Mt.Pleasant(sounds like a horror film town) in michigan and it was a daily nightmare for me. I was not exceptionally rich, I was not much into sports but when i did play i was good. I was in the band but still an outcast, Played Sax and was only one (sob...sob ). I wasnt very strong or the most beautiful of doods. Basically i had nothing going for me. In fact the only friends i did have were kids from other schools and a guy who was from germany in my class. And yes it is like films.

[This message has been edited by EM Kodiak (edited 06-05-99).]

Cranky

Could we please stay on-topic in these boards? You two are some sad, sorry suckers.
Chung, thanks for your 2.5 year based experience being distilled into 'fascist undertones.' I guess it's only 2.5 times more valid than my one year experience of Ireland, which I describe as 'drunken wife-beating child-abusing unemployed Barrytown Roddy Doyle wannabe overtones.' And Jaguar, we're all sooooo sorry that you were only regularly rich. I'm sure if you had been exceptionally rich, you'd have been able to buy a personality that people could find it in themselves to befriend. Was your German buddy a Nazi? He'd have fit in at Chung's fascist school.

Hobbes

Wow, kettle calling the pot black

anyway check out http://www.usatoday.com/news/ndssun02.htm and don't tell me they are not all f'ed up over here.

EM Kodiak

Just read that article and yer right bro they are all messed up.

----snip

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Lady sues microwave company
Reason: they didnt put in the manual
YOU CAN NOT DRY PETS IN THIS MACHINE
Gets $4 million
----snip

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[EM] Kodiak
"GGGRRROOOOOWWWLLL"