Psycho Ann wrote:
Only He knows if that kid would grow up to be a an "otaku" as defined in Japan as an overly fanatic person. That kid might waste his life playing dating simul games and watching hentai then eventually going out and raping young girls because only young girls remotely resemble the lolita bishoujo in hentai. This kind of level of fanatism happens in very rare cases but as believers and rational people you can't deny that all of us have the potential to be that one crazy otaku. I hate using over-generalizing in these cases but I can't say that it doesn't happen. And I can't say that that one crazy person *knew* he/she was going to turn out like that.
Hasn't anyone ever heard of personal responsibility? Like taking responsibility and facing up to one's own sins, one's own actions for what they are rather than blaming someone or something else? I could easily blame fanfiction.net for introducing me to shounen ai/yaoi, but I can only blame myself for actually reading fics with pairings like Knives/Legato, Kenshin/Sano, and Heero/Duo. The site could refuse to archive such material, but the site is under no such obligation to uphold het pairings. It was my responsibility and mine alone-and I admittedly not only dropped the ball but threw it as far as I could.
So I have *no* right to blame anyone but myself for that.
Responsibility would apply to some of these cases you mentioned, where the persons involved most likely thought "hmm, if I do the crazy act, I won't be locked away for the rest of my natural life like I should be?" or "hmm, if I act like this is all someone else's fault, I'd never get in trouble"
In the cases of those who seriously *are* crazy, I must still say that anime was only the catalyst. Before anime, people have gone crazy over things like politics, live-action film, sports, and a hundred other things I could think of. . .
I'm sorry to say it, but I don't believe outside factors lead to someone becoming a psychopath. I think it's the other way around: someone IS a psychopath and therefore they seek out things most of us wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole, they are too irrational to understand that some actions are impossible or wrong in real life, and they don't realize that their actions have consequences and that every decision one makes sets up other events, other decisions down the road. I'm no expert on psychopaths
, and that's just my personal opinion.
As for everything being evil, I agree. In fact, I see this very world and our existence in these mortal minds and bodies as both fallen and evil. It is a horrible nightmare compared to the glory of an eternity with God. However, we're stuck in this horrible nightmare for usually at least 70 years from the day we're born into it unless we die early or the Rapture comes.
Aside from prayer, Bible, and worship, there's no action that doesn't have a potential for sin, a chance for wrongdoing, or unintended consequences-and even those holy things can be distorted and misused because those of us practicing them still have our filthy human natures. I've seen prayers used to aggrandize, the Bible used to justify hatred, and persons who are so *obsessed* in charismatic worship they seem immune to the needs of anyone other than themselves.
I've personally decided to acknowledge "gray areas" and "dual-sided coin" issues in life because it's simply impossible to survive as a human being in this nightmare we call life without seeing that everything has its benefits and its drawbacks.
For example, we have to work for a living, yet work takes time away from God and only serves to provide us with money-which is yet another temptation.
We have to eat to survive-yet eating is the indulgence of our bodies and when taken to excess, eating is a sin just as bad as getting drunk or lusting is.
We have to speak to others-but God says every idle word will be judged, and how are we to know if our words or idle or not until after the fact-in which case there's nothing to do about it except hang your head in shame.
I could go on forever, but I think you get my point. Before you assume I'm comparing necessities of living like work, food, and speech to an entertainment activity such as anime, I'm not.
I'm simply saying that we *choose* things that give us enjoyment in the areas I mentioned without worrying that it will lead us into the evil inherent in them (as maybe we should): most of us wouldn't choose to work at a job we hate for a pittance wage barely enough to cover our needs-even if it gave us more time to serve God-so we don't become obsessed with work. Most of us don't live on a limited, tasteless diet made only to keep us alive so we don't become gluttons. Most of us don't live our lives saying as little as possible and attempting to avoid conversations lest we misspeak and say idle words.
Instead, we feel free to draw a line somewhere between the extremes.
Now, with that rant over, I can agree with you that kids shouldn't watch anime. If I had kids, I wouldn't let them watch anything (even the overly edited and mostly harmless things like Pokemon and whatnot on network TV) until they were at least 16 or 17. I also wouldn't let them watch Hollywood movies, watch most TV, use the Internet, or do many other things for fear they would be harmed and I would be held responsible.
However, I'm not going to *have* children, because I myself would be a bad influence. I recognize my weaknesses, and I probably wouldn't be able to live up to my own standards for them or for myself. . .and besides, indulging one's body to bring someone else into a fallen, evil world like this is to me ethically questionable in and of itself.
LOL, I know this post has wandered everywhere, and I'm sorry about that: late night and philosophical ramblings are not a very good combination for me, hehe -^.^-
you're saying there 
