Sir, - Reports of the latest horrific school massacre from the United States have clearly shocked and sickened with their graphic images of children's bodies laid out in school playgrounds, and the almost unbelievable description of the actions and behaviour of the fellow students who rampaged through the school taunting and then shooting their victims.
They have also regrettably written themselves into history and for some will provide role models for copycat attacks. The American dream of a free, democratic and peace-loving society has created a nightmare generation of young people driven by unbridled greed, intolerance, and instant self-gratification at any price.
Youth culture worldwide has become infected through the pervasive media of film, television, music and the Internet. Indeed, we are told that the two teenagers who carried out the Colorado shooting took the information needed to manufacture their arsenal of bombs from the Internet, and closely followed the plot of a Hollywood film in which the main character gets high on drugs before shooting his way through his school.
How long will it be before we see a book and film based on this latest massacre?
If we are to avoid the potential of such horrific incidents on this side of the Atlantic, action needs to be taken to distance ourselves from the popular culture of society in the United States, and in particular the toxic tide of material bombarding our young people through the popular media to which they have unrestricted access.
It is perhaps unpalatable for most of us to tackle the issue of censorship in a democratic society, but we must face up to the reality that in today's fast-moving, media- and technology-driven world, there is too much pressure on vulnerable young minds.
There is enormous profit for a few in filling the big screen, the small screen and the computer screen with images of gratuitous violence and the lowest and most shocking forms of behaviour, but are the many willing to live in the world that will be created as a result? - Yours, etc., T. P. Rafferty,
Oysterhaven, Co Cork.