Operation: Violence

I have a friend who is part of the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command, and works as a consultant for films. His job is to make sure that military action scenes are depicted as realistically as possible. One of his more recent jobs was working on the set of the Call of Duty trailer for the mission "Operation Kingfish". Since he has military experience, he was hired as a consultant to make sure that all the action scenes were as realistic as possible. 

 

As violent as his job may be, he is not a violent guy at all. I asked him if he ever felt the need to be violent in his everyday life after playing violent games or having a violent job. He said if anything, it makes him less violent because as he has to deal with violence all the time, he does not want it a part of his normal life. He explained to me that some people find it entertaining because it’s something they would not normally do in real life, so being able to do it virtually satisfies their curiosities about violence. I should also mention that he grew up Christian – he still believes in the faith but does not attend Church regularly. He said that he was taught that violence is never the answer, and that his Christian faith taught him to use methods other than violence to deal with things. I’ve included the video that he worked on, titled “Call of Duty: Operation Kingfish”. 

The debate with this topic is whether violence is natural or cultural. I believe that most people have a violent side; it is just up to them whether or not they choose to explore it.  In class, we discussed ideas about whether or not these games provoke violence. While I believe that these games could potentially provoke some violent ideas, some people are simply naturally violent or learn violence in other aspects of life. Many people believe video games are the reason why their children are violent, but I believe that things you experience outside of your video games can influence you more violently.