Remote Monsters?

Have you noticed how people with black, 4 wheel drive, SUV’s with the dark glass windows seem to succumb to Jekyll and Hyde transformations as they get in and out of their vehicle.

Perhaps it is something to do with the mind’s ability to separate the things it sees on screen from the things that are real, as though TV has taught them that things on screens are not real.

One of the best examples of how dangerous this phenomenon can be are drone missiles where a remote operator presses a button somewhere and a family home is blown up in Pakistan.

I should imagine that the people who press the buttons would never dream of killing someone in cold blood - but pressing a button and watching a house explode isn’t really real is it?

Another example - the shocking video, allegedly leaked by Bradley Manning, of a helicopter crew who appeared to be shooting people for the fun of it, apparently because they viewed everything on a screen and had become so far removed from reality that it seemed like a computer game - demonstrates just how deadly it can be to be physically isolated from the true effects of your actions.

Similarly, one of the dangers of the internet is that its anonymity can cause people to act in arrogant, thoughtless, selfish, ways, as they too are removed from responsibility and direct consequences.

It is easy to slip into an alter ego and be the person you would like to be rather than the wimp you are.
So it is that people who struggle to fit in the real world turn on their computer and become… monsters.

For instance, on internet forums, we’ve all met the type who like an ill-mannered child, dressed in a cowboy suit, imagines he’s John Wayne or Bruce Willis, waves his toy gun around, trying to impress with his bad language and pathetic attempts to seem worldly-wise.

The fact that the grown ups are usually too polite to give him the verbal spanking he richly deserves simply serves to encourage him and reinforces his self deception that he’s a rough, tough, gunslinger, who shoots from the hip.

So what can be done? I would suggest that we have to make people realise that there are consequences.

For fools who are a menace on forums we can first warn them and ultimately ban them… but for fools with remote controlled missiles who claim they blow up buildings, or terrorists, NOT people -
we must find a way of forcing them to face up to the realities of collateral damage!