Blind Man with a Pistol reviews Grand Theft Auto IV

The debate between continues about whether art provides us with role models (Plato) or catharsis (Aristotle). Blind Man with a Pistol reviews Grand Theft Auto IV, especially its misogyny and concludes, "It is as if the protests against the game are as simulated as the violence it represents: virtual protest for virtual violence while the real deal continues apace" (Grand Theft Reality).

Blind Man cites Jean Baudrillard (The Gulf War Did Not Take Place): "We are all hostages of media, induced to believe."

There is also a good link to an excerpt Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do, by Drs. Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl K. Olson, co-directors of the Harvard Medical School Center for Mental Health and Media. They take the Aristotelian position.

The highlight for me was the Blind Man's description of Canada in Afghanistan: "Our government wages an imperialist act of aggression upon an unarmed nation for an act of terrorism that was neither directed at us, nor committed by those we attack; and we do it in the name of 'defence.'”

Read the whole review here =>

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