Garbage In....Garbage Out

My Mom always used to say "Garbage In...Garbage Out!"  It was a philosophy well adopted as truth in my family and I still believe it to be true today.  What we surround ourselves with, what we expose ourselves to, and what we entertain our lives with will inevitably become a part of who we are as well.  Back in the days when my mother would reiterate this theme it was in reference to myself and my sister spending our time listening to rap music or watching the forbidden "Married With Children" on television.   Now of course, I am the adult and can readily tell that the children around me are influenced greatly by the things we introduce to them and those things ultimately determine their demeanor and reactions in certain situations.  But the question I have today is not if that philosophy I have is true or not...but whether or not we could ever really BLAME the television and music our children indulge in as the cause of their actions.

I believe that we all are ultimately in the business of fitting in.  We all want to belong and we all want to be accepted in this world.  Whether we do this by dressing a certain way, listening to a certain genre of music, or even drinking a certain energy drink or using a certain language...we all want to feel like we are part of a collective "cool".  Whatever we deem that to be, we want to be that certain image and strive to obtain that nearly our whole lives.  We get our sense of style, our language, our boundaries as what is and is not morally and socially acceptable, and our very first sense of belonging or fitting in from our families.  I have a neice and nephew who are utterly obsessed with horror movies.  They are young and impressionable but the blood, gore, suspense, and extent of some human depravity seem not to bother their otherwise adorable young minds.  Their mother loved horror movies, their dad, sister, aunts, uncles, just about everyone who has ever been related to someone with their same surname LOVES getting the bejesus scared out of them by the likes of Hitchcock and Tarantino.  Where did they get the stomach and desire to see such images without wanting to vomit violently like their outcast Aunt Me?  DNA?  Genetics?  I highly doubt it.  They grew up with it in the background.  They were told how the fake blood is made and how actors play the roles of the scary monstrous serial killers and they seem to accept this pastime as something completely socially acceptable.  

Now, since my neice and nephew are twins...let's use them in my hypothetical.  They both grew up watching these shows.  They both have been exposed to the same images and plots.  They are both from the same genetic stock.  What if one of then suddenly and heaven forbiddingly decided to act out one of these movies and murdered someone?  Would the show be to blame?  Well, no?  They both saw the same show but only one decided that it was acceptable to emulate those things.  The other one stayed firmly planted in reality and never hurt a fly.  But, how did the psychopathic one get the idea to murder?  He or she never saw it anywhere other than the television screen at home during Home Horror Night.  So, can we blame the violence on that movie?  Or do we blame some other source like lack of parenting or genetics?  

Personally, it's simple mathmatics.  Like one of those annoyingly difficult and ridiculously irrelevant SAT questions.  Not everyone that watches horror movies kill people.  Not all killers watch horror movies.  Not all parents allow their kids to watch horror movies.  But the parents who do are not breeding violence by simply doing so.  There has to be a combination of all of these factors, mixed with the right emotional makeup of the child to create a brain that sees those things and then acts out accordingly.  But then that does beg that question that if NO kids ever saw horror films and NO parents saw it acceptable to subject their children to such material...would ANYONE grow up violent?  I'd have to say yes.  The human mind will always find a way to seek revenge and inflict pain until all those sins are non-existent on the face of the earth.  But I DO believe the number would be MUCH MUCH smaller if we shelter those young minds and surrounded them with the love and ideals we would hope all children should have.  

So, in conclusion, I say shelter the ever loving crap out of your kids.  Don't risk the chance that in the right circumstances with the right emotions your child will remember the bad choices of Jonny Serial Killer instead of the love and guidance you provided.  If we keep our kids KIDS instead of forcing adult ideas and concepts on them...then maybe we won't be shocked when they act more like kids.  Show them only the good in life while they have that option...because sooner than you both wish they will have no choice but to realize the world is not chock full of unicorns and rainbows but rather letdowns and the sorrow of lost human empathy.