#5: What to do when things go wrong?

Blame is something that is used a lot, whether it be fairly or unfairly. There will always be someone who is going to try to place the blame of a situation gone wrong on someone else. No one wants to be the cause of anything problematic. With the society we live in today, it is easy to place blame of the wrongdoings of the world on almost anything. As a result of this, people are always trying to find the root cause of situations gone wrong such as deaths and tragedies. Placing blame of situations gone wrong on other things such as books, or the media is easy to do, however it is hard to say if these factors are ever truly the cause.

One example of a tragic situation that's blame was placed on another source was a novel written by Stephen King called Rage. This book being about a high school student who held his math class hostage and ends up killing his teacher was thought to influence students of multiple real life school incidents of shootings and holding classes hostage. Four of these incidents had connections to the book Rage itself. Stephen King made the choice to put a halt to all printings of the book in case it really did cause these situations, although he himself did not believe it was the sole reason for these acts. 

It is impossible to definitely state whether or not things such as aggressive stories involving violence can be the exact cause for real life incidents like school shootings, but it is easy to put the blame on them. Although this ultimately puts the blame on the author of stories such as these. Being that King actually wrote this novel while he was in high school, I think it made readers who were students at the time able to relate with the book a lot more. Especially if they were struggling with issues themselves; a book such as this can easily influence them into acting out the story in real life. However, it is not fair to put the blame on the author because in no way did he suggest or encourage anyone to cause a school shooting. It is hard because everyone is entitled to their freedom of speech, and authors creativity along with this can end up being very powerful to readers, and evidently more than they expected. 

There are other issues too such as video game violence being related to real life gun violence, and tobacco companies being blamed for deaths in America. Although even studies have proved that gun violence has more to do with the accessibility of guns in America rather than the violence portrayed in video games. However, people still place the blame on the video games. Even tobacco companies are blamed more strongly for those who have died of tobacco use instead of the individuals who chose to use it themselves. 

Almost every negative situation can be blamed on an aspect of the media, or something in our societies culture instead of the individuals that cause these problems themselves. Although it is true society can strongly influence people to act in certain ways, it is unfair to place all the blame on a source that may or may not have impacted one's decision. Negative situations should be looked at for what it is, and discuss possible factors that may have influenced it although it is unfair to place all the blame on someone or something else.