" We Are Training Our Kids to Kill"

      In this essay by Dave Grossman, Grossman talks about how the world today is a much more violent place. He first introduces his background a bit and how he worked for the military and studied how to enable people to kill (497). Using this knowledge he points out that children and military soldiers are now conditioned in different forms to associate violence with pleasure. Today's society of young children experiance a form of violence everyday of their lives; whether its through television and the media, or video games. Video games have now had a great influence on children. Grossman argues that it not only does it teach children who have never picked up a gun to be good shooters, but since it's a game that's how they see it in reality as well; a game. Through television children experience violence and are "unable to distinguish clearly between fantasy and reality" (500). Grossman also points that as a human race it is hard for us to kill our own kind, so when it comes to military soldiers they are either classically condtioned or through a form of operant conditioning trained to "kill or be killed". They are trained to associate killing with pleasure and trained to making shooting at something and killing it a reflexive skill. Grossman argues that the "virus of violence is occuring worldwide" (497).
      I thought this essay was really interesting and Grossman made a lot of good points when it came to the violent affect of children playing video games. Children cannot yet distinguish the difference between fantasy and reality so parents and future parents need to be careful what they expose their children to. I think its really sad about the soldiers and what they are put through so that they can fight for the country. I have friends that joined the military and to read that they are pretty much being "brainwashed" to accept murder in their lives is horrifying. Grossman wrote " we have raised a generation of barbarians who have learned to associate violence with pleasure" (502) is a line that stood out to me because it put what he is arguing into perspective. Its a very scary thought.