The vicious cycle of ignorance

I know this is a couple of weeks late, but I want to talk about the recent Bully debate. Bully is a video game coming out in a couple of weeks by Rockstar, makers of the infamous Grand Theft Auto series. Bully promises to be an open ended school sim game, where you can abuse and protect fellow classmates with the sociological premise that school is a macrocosm of what life is really like. Already this has garnered a lot of hatred and contention from video game violence abolitionists, especially one Jack Thompson. People have gone so far as to even call it a "Columbine-sim". I think there are only three possible positions to take as a solution to this problem:

1. Censor and cease distribution of all violent video games, in the hope that it will improve our society and not allow children to become de-sensitized to violence. Several attempts to legislate this have already been turned down, as it is in clear violation of our first amendment.

2. Allow violence or sex in video games provided parents monitor and teach their kids what is reality and what is not, while a ratings system is enforced to prevent illicit material being sold to minors.

3. Allow any and all violence or sex in games with no sales restrictions or ratings differentiations for parents to understand.

I personally, think 1 and 3 are ridiculous. The only way to solve this problem is by doing two things: Actually enforce the ESRB ratings systems, and parents governing their children's video game habits. You cannot legislate any amount of common sense on people. Any social problem must be solved personally, of your own accord. I hear this same argument over and over again, but have seen so many stupid parents, and so many stores that do not adhere to the ESRB, that I believe it bears reiteration. This problem will not be solved unless people want it to be. Also, I am very tired of the proposed levels of censorship in this media. Don't get me wrong, I'm not fighting for my rights to play some of these stupid murder-sims, I am just upset that we still have not learned our lesson on censorship and artistic restriction.

I was thinking about how dangerous censorship can really be. Children need to understand the difference between reality and fiction. The more we censor things, the more ignorant people will become, and it is the ignorance that we should be fighting. It is the ignorance that causes people to do stupid things that hurt people. And the more ignorant people become, the more censorship will be there to try and prevent it, until it becomes a horrible cycle of self destruction. So, here's an idea: Think!