just pretend i'm not a liberal for a sec

Pardon me, while I pause for pop culture.

Over the last few days I have noticed some pretty striking billboards as I've traveled throughout Chicago: Grand Theft Auto IV, which I guess debuted yesterday, as my recent search results tell me. Apparently I missed a bit of the buzz until now. A string of shootings on the South side of Chicago have been linked by some groups to the violent video game series' upcoming debut. And the unveiling of the ads in New York (also known as Liberty City in the game) was met with lots of media fanfare.

Critics of Grand Theft Auto IV cite that the game is too violent, that it encourages armed robbery, prostitution, and senseless murder. Some stop there, but some see a connection with games like GTA IV and violent tendencies in children. I happen to be in that camp, though I don't like to blame the video games solely. The people at Rockstar Games, where the game is made, point out that Grand Theft Auto's unique attribute is its element of satire. They argue that the game is a commentary on American culture and consumerism. And ultimately they point out that the game is rated Mature, and their intent was that it be played by adult gamers, not children.

Yet, children and teens are getting their hands on this video game and in large numbers. Bans on purchasing for people under 17 have been tightened, forcibly, after a backlash of media attention and criticism of the game. But the recent rash of controversial billboards makes me suspicious of Rockstar Games' defense. They chose to place provocative ads in places visible to schoolchildren and frequented by families, where a cigarette ad would normally be banned. Furthermore, isn't it convenient that this "satire" preys upon the very marketplace it apparently derides?

However, my real criticism of Grand Theft Auto is a bit bigger than the game's influence on children and teens. My criticism lies in a market and a culture that, despite mild protest, accepts a game like Grand Theft Auto into the commonplace. While billboards like the one on Canal Street certainly have the ability to shock us momentarily, Grand Theft Auto and all of its contents, no longer dismay and disgust us.

How can we, as a nation, seek peace, when we spend our leisure time faking war?

Watching the "trailer" for Grand Theft Auto IV is like any violent thriller you might catch at the multiplex these days. There are masked men storming at the screen with cocked weapons. There are ominous men at tables with armed cronies nearby. There are gunshot-flecked car chases. Explosions. Prostitutes. Even an intense soundtrack. (Complete with a lead-in commercial from Honda narrated by the friendly Kevin Spacey.)

So I guess the crux of my criticism isn't merely that Grand Theft Auto exposes children to senseless violence but that this kind of senseless violence (not to mention satire, right?) is appealing to so many "Mature" gamers. Why, exactly, do people today want to hold the reins for armed robbery, prostitution, and drunk driving? Is it all, as Rockstar Games would have us believe, a postmodern exercise in exploring our culture and seeking its flaws and inadequacies? An intellectual pursuit on par with a game of chess or an evening with a novel?

War saturates the world.

So why do we need to play at it? People scoff at the notion that little kids are affected by the games they play, that television influences its viewers, that media sways its audience. Yet, who can argue that this society is saturated with violence? That most of us have become numb, immune, and past dismay with most of the senseless violence going on around us? For some of us, the violence seems like folklore from within the tree-lined walls of privilege. Yet, for many the violence is so constant and pervasive that it is no longer shocking.

It is easy to ignore games like Grand Theft Auto gaining momentum and becoming fixtures in popular culture, earning gamers a platform where they can vehemently defend their right to roleplay murder and malice.

To what else can we link school shootings, snipers on highways, and gunmen in shopping malls but a culture so saturated by violence that it no longer has the frame of reference to be shocked by scenes like the ones from Grand Theft Auto played out in real life and with a controller? I'm not going to blame Rockstar Games for the fate of the world. But I blame the market that promotes it and the culture that accepts it.

War is not only in the newspapers. It lives on the streets of Anytown, USA and something tells me that simulating that war in my living room with a joystick isn't halting the gunfire.