h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There seems to be a huge decrease in Parental Responsibility, most prominent in the USA, but rapidly rising in this country.
In fact, I'd go as far to say there is a decrease in Personal Responsibility. You are spot on in the human brain recognizing the Cause & Effect Principle, however we seem to be unable to accept that often the original cause is ourselves.
This can be seen in the rise in civil cases in Court, and the incessant advertising of Personal Claims lawyers.
People seem to think that even if they were climbing a rotten ladder whilst carrying two buckets of steaming hot tar and talking on a mobile phone that the resulting "accident" was somehow the fault of the ladder manufacturer, Mr MacAdam, the person who phoned them, or their employer for having the audacity to expect them to think for themselves.
Thankfully the courts in Britain do not suffer fools gladly (very often) and these companies offering these No Win, No Fee deals are slowly beginning to come unstuck.
As for violent games / films / art / etc. = violent people, the argument is as old as the hills, and one which was equally as valid during the Roman Empire as now.
As a complete tangent, I have a real issue with the "Society is getting more violent" brigade, too. To quote Billy Joel (I never thought I'd be typing that) We didn't start the fire.

Hear hear, Atlantic_Cable. Parents should be more responsible and pay more attention to what their kids are up to, but I refer to the point where you mention that out of millions of copies sold, there has been one copycat. People are far too quick to jump on the bandwagon these days, but again this argument is years old.

One interesting point though - the most violent book I've ever read was the Bible. Should that be banned?

Oh, don't get me started on the Bible... or rather the Bible bashers.

Thanks for all your comments.

Beatifully written.

...But since we've inadvertently got onto the Bible, here's another angle.
The Gun is part of the fabric of America because it was written into the Constitution. The original justification was valid : such weapons were essential personal protection as a nation was being forged, two hundred years ago.
A lot of Americans measure their morality againgst a creed written two thousand years ago. Then too, the context of the writings was a dangerous and strife-torn land, its peoples in turmoil.
I sometimes wonder who'd be more distressed today :
George Washington - Oh no, they've got me down as the Justifier of Firearms...
Jesus of Nazareth - Oh no, they've got me down as the Son of God...
When are we going to realise that the wise men of past times would have surely called it differently today?

Good point.

Plus, there are hundreds of translation errors in it, like Moses and the "Red" Sea.

What I really hate is the people who treat it as a pick 'n mix shop, using the bits that support their arguement and ignoring the stuff that makes no sense in modern times.

At the last count, 50,000 contradictions were apparently found in the Bible. Surprised?

To be perfectly honest, no.

People forget it isn't a book. Its a collection of books, each of which is a collection of, for want of a better term, folklore.

Take Noah. Recent studies have found he did exists, but his place in hostory is out by thousands of years (he lived at the time of the pyramids) and was accidentally swept into the sea by a freak storm in a trading barge containing, you guessed it, some farm animals. He settled on some remote island with his family apparently, but never returned home.

Same with the parting of the Red Sea. This may well have happened, but was more likely caused by the Santorini volcano eruption and not God's will.

Yes, its a mistranslation of "Reed", which ironically in the original language, the words for "red" and "reed" are not only spelt, but alos sound very similar.

The "reed sea" is a lot further to the north, bordering the Mediteranean I believe and you're right, it coincides with the volcanic erruption.

Of course God has no control over volcanic activity.