Halo and No Angel

So an Ohio teen attempted to kill both of his parents, successfully killing his mother, because they took his “Halo 3” X-box video game away.  The Prosecutors are saying he hatched the plan for weeks in retaliation.  The Defense does not deny that the crazed tike killed his parents but are looking for leniency with an insanity plea.

The father who has since forgiven his son, tells the story that his son came into his parents’ bedroom, told them to close their eyes because he had a “surprise for them” and then shot them both point blank in their heads.

Of course, this will probably bring up the hailstorm that is our society’s propensity to blame such violence on everything but the overwhelming malevolence and psychopathic behavior of some of our teens.  Many say the advent of gratuitously violent video games and television and movie fare is the sole blame.  I don’t know what I think about this argument.  It’s the chicken before/after the egg scenario.

Maybe these mediums do create delusions of grandeur allowing people to think they too could rid their problems with two shots from a gun.  The truth is to go through with killing your parents isn’t a question of any of this or even if you love your parents or not but a question of if you can emote at all.  The latter is what hinders a psychopath; they have no feelings to really pull from.  And, ultimately, this can afflict any age.   Some will act on these proclivities from an early age  or let them fester until their twisted machinations ripe years later.

A solution?  I am not sure I have one.  I think an open dialogue is very important.  See your kids instead of seeing through them.  Psychopathy seems ingrained but maybe one can definitely see early warning  signs if they just are more aware.  You can only do that if you spend time with your children!  The worse thing we can do in this day and age is to sit back and let our children go unanswered or unnoticed.