Adaptation and Desensitization – Two Sides of the Same Coin

Mankind’s ability to adapt is one of its greatest gifts. Put people into the most difficult situations and somehow they manage to survive—and in some cases even thrive. Yet, the very characteristic that enables us to endure as a species is also the characteristic most responsible for the disintegration of our societal mores and values.

The problem with adaptation is that too often it leads to desensitization, as is the case with the incessant images of violence and sex that bombard our minds daily. Our minds adapt by hardening against the increasingly disturbing images, creating a shield over our sensitivity to moral outrage. Without this shield people would be unable to satisfy their innumerable daily responsibilities in this hectic world. The shield is a defense mechanism, a survival method—one that is best summarized by the expression, “I have my own problems to worry about.” Hence, over time the same images that would have offended us barely register on our inner moral radar. The state of video games is a prime example, as indicated in a New York Daily News article today:

“The over-the-top Saints Row 2 encourages players to butcher cops with chain saws, smoke drugs, annihilate rival gangsters and run prostitution rings. . . . Players earn money or street credibility in a host of criminal and despicable ways, like mutilating cops and enslaving women.” (http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/arts/2008/10/13/2008-10-13_letting_game_players_kill_cops_and_smoke.html)

Nice, huh?

NYPD union boss Patrick Lynch appropriately argues that “these horrible and violent video games desensitize young people to violence while encouraging depravity, immorality while glorifying criminal behavior." Saints Row 2-designer THQ is clearly trying to out-deprave the granddaddy of all tasteless video games, Grand Theft Auto. GTA is now in its fourth version, and its latest “has sold more than 6 million copies since April.”

There will be no uproar about Saints Row 2. People will argue that it is just a game. And months from now when THQ has earned several million dollars in sales from this trash, we will once again wonder why children are committing violent crimes at ever younger ages and why these same youngsters refer to women as “bitches and hos”.

Don’t blame the children. They are just adapting to their circumstances.

Donald Tremblay