Changes in our Society...good or bad? Thoughts for discussion.

[mrs.b]

While it is more common these days - internet makes it easier to find the venues - there have always been these pockets of obsession and fans. Star Trek conventions? I remember those being talked about when I was younger.When I was a kid, I recall news stories of people panicking that other games would lead to mass murders by people dressed as elves wielding longbows, imagining the world full of dragons. Like you said, I think these obsessions have always been around. Some people handle it as an entertaining pastime, with a portion of the offbeat population getting too entrenched. If it was not over that, it would be over something else, though; obsessive, unsocialized people will find their outlet one way or another. They can just find them more readily now, so the outlets and the obsessive behavior get more visibility. For some of the attendees that appear to take it too far, I imagine they may go to wild extremes on the weekends, have fun dressing up, then go back to normal lives once they take off the make-up. Likewise, there is a not insubstantial number that fit the profile of parents' basement dwellers because they do not know how, and never figured out how to function outside their fantasy worlds. That has and will always be the case, though. It has just become more "cool" to be a nerd, so people do not hide that nerd-factor as much as when we were younger. It came with the whole no-tolerance policy deal at schools with regard to bullying; "don't pick on that kid because he's different, because being different is okay." To a great degree, I think it's a good thing.

Edited to Add: Any cartoon message can be evaluated and read into; Elmer Fudd shooting Bugs Bunny, who promptly gets up, could be argued to say, "it is okay to hurt people, because the damage is not permanent." Showing children, in children's contexts, that hurting people does hurt and can do lasting damage could be argued to be positive, in showing real-world consequences in contexts they can understand. Even in Thomas the Tank engine, Diesel 10 chased Lady and Thomas all over the island with the implied threat that if he caught them, he would hurt them with a pinchy claw. (My son is sick, and though he is 9 years old, one of his autistic obsessions is trains and he gravitates to the show when he does not feel well...we've been watching it all day long.) It is an innocent show that teaches a lot of good messages - say "please" and "thank you," do not be greedy, treat your friends how you want to be treated - and it has violent threats included.