THE LAST DAYS OF AMERICA ARE HERE. // The Harmful Effects of Video Game Addiction. // The End Times.

THE LAST DAYS OF AMERICA ARE HERE. // The Harmful Effects of Video Game Addiction. // The End Times.

(American flag crumbling. Pixabay. Free images.)

America is a crumbling superpower. Its glory days are over. Crime has increased to the point where many areas within Chicago and other cities are off limits to most people. Factories nationwide are abandoned and much of Detroit, a former automobile manufacturing capital, is filled with abandoned office buildings and houses. 

(The Great Depression will return to America.
Image source: Pixabay.)

Video game addiction and other addictions have led to societal problems and divorce. The amount of joblessness is increasing, especially with the rise of robotics and overseas manufacturing. Real unemployment (not the official unemployment) is especially high.

The question is why are all these events transpiring? Why is America no longer as wealthy as it used to be? And, did America rightfully acquire all its territory from Native Americans, or not? Could it be that America's problems are caused by its opposing of the Almighty God, whom the founding fathers claimed to serve?

Is America going to continue much longer? 

Once a nation through which God sent many missionaries into the world and through which God blessed Israel, America has slipped far away from it's Biblical heritage. The Pilgrims and other believers in Jesus came to America's shores for the purpose of religious freedom and to spread the Gospel to the indigenous peoples of North America. These first settlers, for the most part, did not intend to drive the Native Americans off their land. 

However, as more people arrived in the "New World," land more land was purchased from the Native Americans. But, as people grew greedy, ungodly men took it upon themselves to steal land from the Native Americans and mistreat them in other ways too. 

The mistreatment of Native Americans happened at the same time that African slaves were wrongfully brought over to work in plantations. They were mistreated, and the European society, at the time, wrongfully thought of them as "inferior" to other peoples. This lie about "superiority" and "inferiority" led to many ungodly atrocities committed against fellow human beings, who are all created equal by God.

When God saw the wickedness in the hearts of slave traders and in those who "bought" and "sold" these abused people, He pleaded with the abusers to repent from their wickedness. He continued to plead with America for hundreds of years.

(An antique photo of a Native American.
Pixabay. Free images.)

Even after the Civil War ended, black people were mistreated and abused up until the Civil Rights movement came in the 1960s. Native Americans were also marginalized and treated poorly following the forced removal of Native Americans from their own lands by the government, which happened up until the 1890s. Indian Appropriation Acts were passed in order to seize Native American lands by force.

Also, during the 1800s, many Native Americans were massacred by wicked men in the U.S. Cavalry, who held grudges against "Indians" for some "Indian" raids against "white settlers," who squatted on Native American land.



The Dust Bowl and the Great Depression

The "Dust Bowl" period of the 1930s struck the U.S. following the finalizing of the land theft that took place during the 1800s. During the "Dust Bowl," severe drought struck the Great Plains, destroying the livelihoods of many farmers and harming the economy of America. 

The topsoil had been mismanaged, and when a severe drought struck the region, wind blew the dry soil into the air. Dust storms whipped through the land, making the sky go dark, an ominous sign of a future judgment to come for America's many sins, including the theft of Native American land. 

(The Dust Bowl. Pixabay. Free images.)

The Great Depression happened along with the Dust Bowl and wiped out America's economy to the point where over 20% of the U.S. population was unemployed. Houses made of scraps of wood, pieces of metal, and cardboard began popping up in unused plots of land. They were called Hoovervilles to cast blame on Herbert Hoover, the president at that time. 

Louise Armstrong, who witnessed a chaotic scene in Chicago during the Great Depression, described an awful sight that revealed how impoverished and desperate many people were. She said:

"One vivid, gruesome moment of those dark days we shall never forget. We saw a crowd of some fifty men fighting over a barrel of garbage which had been set outside the back door of a restaurant. American citizens fighting for scraps of food like animals!" (Hall) [End quote]

Does this awful scene and the whole period of the Great Depression match with the notion that America is a nation that God has blessed? Or, is it an indication that America had forsaken its Christian heritage and had rebelled against God and His ways?

A little more than 30 years after the Great Depression ended (roughly in 1940), the murder of undeveloped children was legalized (in 1973) and it was called abortion. Around the time abortion was legalized, the drug culture became mainstream and many people became hooked on narcotics, further degrading North American, South American, and Western society. 

Video games can be like drugs.

A number of years after narcotics were popular for many Americans, technology progressed to the point where video games came out that drew crowds of young adults, teens, and children. Many now are addicted to games such as World of Warcraft or EverQuest. According to the article by The Verge titled, "If 'World of Warcraft' is a drug, Blizzard is a cruel drug dealer," a user of World of Warcraft, named Monkkicks, wrote this statement on the World of Warcraft forums:

______________________

(Video game controllers. Pixabay. Free images.)

"Hi i play wow every day usually for 8 hours. I do not enjoy it, but i still play it. i don't even know why. [...]

i want to be able to play less but i just can't do it. all the people i have met in wow stopped playing or play less than what i do.

what keeps me drawing me back to this game? why am i addicted? does anyone know a good way to cut back on wow? or anything to get my mind off the game?

thanks for reading..." (Sottek)

______________________

Ryan van Cleave, a former World of Warcraft (WoW) player, tells how he was so engrossed in the game that he neglected his family and his job, missed sleep, and even thought about committing suicide. Speaking of his former time as a WoW gamer, van Cleave wrote: 

"Playing WoW makes me feel godlike. I have ultimate control and can do what I want with few real repercussions. The real world makes me feel impotent … – the littlest hitch in daily living feels profoundly disempowering." (Lush)

The Guardian said this in an article ("At war with World of Warcraft: an addict tells his story") on video game addiction: 

"Over the past five years, stories in the media have described people suffering exhaustion after playing a game for 50 hours straight, teens killing their parents after having games taken away and parents neglecting infants while mesmerised by the online world." (Lush)

Another Guardian article, titled "Girl starved to death while parents raised virtual child in online game," said:

"South Korean police have arrested a couple for starving their three-month-old daughter to death while they devoted hours to playing a computer game that involved raising a virtual character of a young girl." (Mark Tran)

Some people find it very hard to break away from video games. And, unlike narcotics, video games are legal. They have become very popular as computer graphics and processors advanced greatly since the '70s and '80s. A whole website, thegamerwidows.com, is dedicated to the spouses of addicted video game players.

According to the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the video game industry is growing very rapidly and is raking in billions of dollars of global video game sales. Here is what ESA had to say about video games:

"The video game industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in the U.S. economy. According to research firm Gartner, global video game sales will reach $111.1 billion by 2015. In 2013, computer and video game companies posted strong overall sales in the United States, with revenues exceeding $21 billion [...] Worldwide, sales in 2013 topped $93 billion, according to Gartner, due in part to the growth in mobile game play and the release of the eighth generation of game consoles." ("Games:...") [End quote]

How technology crowds out God. 

(A smartphone. Pixabay. Free images.)

With all this abundance of video games, smart phones, and internet gaming platforms, people have less time to think about what really matters in life, such as eternity, God, and God's holy word, the Bible. It is often easier to use a computer than to seek God and read God's book, the Bible, but it doesn't have to be that way.

The human soul and spirit are deep wells, which are empty in their natural state. Without a deep relationship with the loving, Almighty God, these wells are empty and dry, and we tend to want to fill these wells with something. If we are not being filled with God, whatever we pour into our souls would be as lasting and as useful as liquid nitrogen, which boils on contact with any surface at room temperature.

There is nothing in this world or in any religion that can fill our soul or spirit except for a Spirit, the Creator God. Eating grass will never fill you up, and only eating dry crackers will never quench your thirst for water. Only the Water of Life can fill up your soul and spirit, and quench your thirst, and fully satisfy you. His Name is Jesus Christ.

Jesus said these words to a woman of Samaria in John chapter 4, verses 7 to 14:

[John 4:7-14]

"[7.] There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. 8. (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) 

9. Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. 

10. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. 

11. The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? 12. Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? 

13. Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: 14. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." [End quote] 


Conclusion

America, as a country, will not recover from its dive into destruction, as a whole, but many people in America can still wake up and realize their need for God and for salvation through Jesus Christ. There is great hope for all who call upon God and who trust only in Jesus Christ for salvation. 

 ➠ If you would like to know Abba God the Father and Jesus Christ (God the Son), and be saved from sin, click here to read more. 

____________________________

WORKS CITED

Hall, Thomas E., J. David Ferguson. "The Great Depression: An International Disaster of Perverse Economic Policies." books.google.com. Google.com.

Games: Improving the Economy. theesa.com. Entertainment Software Association.

Lush, Tamara. "At war with World of Warcraft: an addict tells his story Guardian." theguardian.com. News and Media Limited.

Tran, Mark. "Girl starved to death while parents raised virtual child in online game." theguardian.com. News and Media Limited.

Sottek, T.C. "If 'World of Warcraft' is a drug, Blizzard is a cruel drug dealer" theverge.com. Vox Media.