Under the influence

in·flu·ence  [in-floo-uhns] 

-noun

"the capacity or power of persons or things to be a compelling force on or produce effects on the actions, behavior, opinions, etc., of others"

from on Wed 18 Mar 09

Did you ever watch The Matrix and feel the intense desire to kick some baddy ass and defy the laws of the natural world?

Have you ever watched a kung fu film and come away thinking, "hwaaaaaah!" (that's my best textual representation of the vocal accompaniment!)?

What do gangster films bring out in us?  Or horror films?  Or vigilante justice films?  Or the road trip films, the romances, the comedies, the thrillers...?  Who do we try to emulate?  (more on hero(ine)s)

When someone in the real world takes a gun, kills a bunch of people, and then shoots themselves, I can't help wondering what their influences were.  A quote in a recent news article suggested that there are "typical" computer games played by such people.  Are the games chosen by a particular personality type;  or do the games shape the personality?

Whilst I've no doubt that both are true, I don't believe anyone  can reasonably argue that we're not heavily influenced by the things that fill our time.

Do we know a cross-section of people from different backgrounds?  Do all our friends read the same daily newspaper?  Do we regularly talk to homeless people, teachers, doctors, plumbers, farmers...?  Do we always read books from the same genre?

Everyone is under some influence.  But what are the strongest ones, and where are they leading us?

To some extent, we're simply victims of our circumstances, and can't easily control many of the daily factors that impact on us; but I'm inclined to think that there's a huge amount that influences our lives that we do have the power to change...