Eric, if you think the miniseries is good you should really read the book. I think the miniseries is great in its own right but the book is rich in experiences too. I think Stephen Ambrose really got the voice of the American G.I. in “Band of Brothers.”

SATX

My brother and I had the same reaction you did and it was nice to hear most in the audience have the same reaction. (this was the opening show, too)

Where do you live?

Your pst is provocative, but I have always had a hard time with the association of fictional violence with real violence and behavior. Don’t get me wrong, I’m fully aware of their correlation, especially with at-risk people. For me, however, they’ve never been associated.

I’ve spent countless hours playing violent video games, watching violent programming, and what not have you. To me, reality and fiction are very different, even when they appear exactly the same. Even if the fiction is a recreation of something that really happened, it still doesn’t have the same effect on me as seeing the real thing.

A good example of this was when a friend of mine (who has spent even more time doing all those things, plus he hunts) and I were looking through pictures at ebaumsworld. We came upon one of a guy who’d decapitated himself through a freak accident of jumping out a window onto an iron fence. We were repulsed! We’d seen who knows how many movie and video game decapitations, but even now recollecting the picture is disturbing to me to think of an actual human being losing their life in such a tragic way.

I’ve just always wondered since Columbine whether I’m the exception or these nuts who act on what they view are.

I resolved to be more involved with my 16yo son.

War is a horrible thing - but there _are_ some things worse. Diplomacy, IMO, is the mind (not arm) of flesh too often.

My apologies for bringing her into this discussion here. It really was not my intent to make it into a hyper-charged partisan squabble. She had just made those comments, and I felt they were apropos to your point.

Unlike some, I never considered the book “Lord of the Flies” all that far-fetched.

I don’t think the author thought it that far-fetched either. His point really is quite powerful.

Kurt,

You have got to chill dude.

But I think the child warriors of Liberia and Congo are instructive. There is something lurking in our children that can easily be exploited for monstrous aims. Unlike some, I never considered the book “Lord of the Flies” all that far-fetched.

I also agree with Lamonte that there is an undercurrent of brutality running through our youth culture that can easily break free and find manifestation in shocking ways. While these outbreaks tend to get a lot of media attention, the spiritual sickness continues un-addressed.

Making insensitive, shocking remarks is what passes for humor on the internet.

When done right it can be hilarious.