From: Zeb Haradon (zharadon@inconnect.com)
Date: Tue Dec 21 1999 - 20:58:04 MST
-----Original Message-----
From: john grigg <starman125@hotmail.com>
To: extropians-digest@extropy.org <extropians-digest@extropy.org>
Date: Tuesday, December 21, 1999 6:08 PM
Subject: Bryan's comments and also rape and VR...
>
>I could see popular VR sims where a person can mass murder while he plays
>the role of Genghis Khan in totally realistic fashion but does not rape.
At
>least with the American view I would say killing is seen as tolerable in
>mass media while fortunately rape is not. With murder (I am not talking
>self-defense) you take the life and future of that person but with rape you
>may let them live but violate that person's body and mind, leaving them a
>psyche so ravaged it may take years to recover if ever. As permanent as
>murder is I find myself often more enraged and concerned when I hear of
rape
>being done to either men or women. Evolutionary psychology and sociology
>gives reasons why we see this as such an outrage. So even a VR simulation
>of the act of rape is a very charged thing.
>
I think the reason rape is more enraging the murder (at least in part) is
the fact that you can kill someone by accident, in a split second of rage,
or as an unintentional part of another goal (to rob someone). You can decide
to kill someone, and 2 seconds later they are dead and you realize "what
have I done?". You can kill someone with motives which do not excuse it, but
at least you can imagine that if you somehow ended up in the situation, it
might be somewhat justified to do the same thing (killing a witness to a
crime, killing in vengeance). But rape is pure sadism, it could never occur
by accident, and it takes enough time that the person doing it is fully
aware of what he is doing, and has rape as his goal. It's also more
upsetting because we all know someone who has been raped, but murder is a
little less common, so it's not as close to home.
>
>sincerely,
>
>John Grigg
>______________________________________________________
>Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Zeb Haradon
My personal website:
http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~haradon
A movie I'm directing:
http://www.elevatormovie.com
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