We're living in a bizarre, morally bent age.Case in point?
A South Korean couple became so consumed in playing a computer game, a "second-life" fantasy game in which they were busy raising a virtual child online, that they neglected to care for their real baby girl.
Police investigating the case learned that the couple (41 year-old Kim Yoo-chul and 25 year-old Choi Mi-sun) would leave their 3 month-old daughter home alone in their apartment while they went out to an internet cafe, spending up to 12 hours a day playing Prius Online, a virtual reality game using avatars engaged in various fantasy scenarios. So totally immersed were they in the online game that they didn't care for their real daughter, giving her just one bottle of milk per day.
The baby died of malnutrition.
The couple first spun a story of finding the child dead after a night's sleep but the child's condition made that unbelievable to police. Still, arrests were not planned until after the baby's funeral. By then the parents had fled and it took another 5 months to track them down.
The couple told police that they had been so effected by guilt during their months on the run that -- they hadn't gone even once to an internet cafe.
That is the measure of their sorrow?
Like I said, we're living in a bizarre, morally bent age.
When men try to live in a dream world, there is nothing awaiting them but the nightmare.
