Culture of violence, my ass!

The BBQ Pit
1

I stumbled across a hilarious book: Boys Will Be Boys, a book about the “culture of violence” manifested in video games, rock music and television and film. Only thing is, the book was written in the early 90s. When video games consisted of Mario Brothers and a few horrible sports games.

Among the things in the book: the author decries the “ultra-violent Super Mario Brothers 2 game, which is advertised as ‘fierce action-packed battle to save the land of Subcon from the curse of the Evil Wart,’”

“Racket Attack,” a “tennis game which transforms sports into a violent activity,”

The Rambo movies, which “inspire violence in teenagers,”

Professional wrestling: the “joys of rape, bigotry and violence,”

and rap lyrics, such as those “from the popular rap group 2 Live Crew.” (I guess she didn’t understand that 2LC is a “joke.”)

I was showing this book to my friend, and after looking at the back of it for 2 seconds he said, “if there’s such a culture of violence, why isn’t anyone signing up for the Army?”

Well put. It’s funny to look back on these kind of books, written in what was really a very different time entertainment-wise (the nineties,) and see how their predictions about youth violence and the horrible effects of the heathen devil video games upon the youth did not, actually, come true. Oh well, such is life.

2

And here I thought it was cartoons that made me so violent. Now hold still while I drop this anvil on your head you wascally Fitwoy

huhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhu

3

The 90’s? And no mention of Beavis and Butthead?

Appalling.
Ffffire! Ffire! FIRE! FIRE! Hehheh mm heh yeah.

4

Shutup, you dumass! :: Smack :: :: Smack::
huh huh… c’ool.

5

What’s even funnier is that the same arguments are made about todays children & ‘culture of violence’ by the very people supposedly damaged by yesterdays ‘culture of violence’

6

Professional wrestling: the “joys of rape, bigotry and violence,”

Violence maybe, but where do rape and bigotry manifest themselves in the pro wrestling scence?

7

Well, when I look around I certainly don’t see any indication that American men are given to violence.

8

Pro wrestling is all about rape. Watch a pro wrestling video and then watch the famous “squeal like a pig” scene from Deliverance. You’d have to be willfully blind to miss the uncanny similarities

9

What, you didn’t see the part where big dangerous black men threaten the chastity of white babes, only to have the KKK arrive to clean house and save the day?

Oh wait, that was Birth of a Nation…

10

Well, it’s true Americans (in general) are somewhat more violent, but you can’t blame the media/entertainment for it. Canada gets the exact same movies, games and TV as Americans and we’re much less violent.

I don’t blame games for violence. It’s more a cultural thing.

11

So you’re saying it’s a culture of violence?

:smiley:

12

I’ll go with badmana on this one. Violent entertainment wouldn’t cut it here if we weren’t predisposed to want it. I honestly think there is a parallel between the modern US & Rome immediately before it’s decline. The more out of line our politics get, the more the populace is opiated with bloodsport.

13

I don’t know, I think you could argue that people are complaining more and more about the violence in our entertainment. Surely you didn’t see that in Rome.

14

I honestly don’t know. Can it be demonstrated that nobody in Rome thought everything was going to Hades in a handbasket, but that the powers that were simply ignored them?

We have our complainers, and yet you can’t get a footbal ticket, even in Denver, and “pro” wrestling & hollywood “action” flicks keep raking in…somebody’s…money.

15

What? Well god damnit no wonder I can’t keep a woman, I’ve modeled my entire sex life around Face Down Ass Up.

16

I doubt it. I don’t think violent sport was Rome’s problem, and our entertainment is really tame compared to theirs. We have sports where people hit each other and movies where sometimes people pretend to kill each other. They had gladiators fight to the death. By that standard we’re orders of magnitude more civilized.

17

Why, back in the good ol days we didn’t put up with all this violence. If we wanted entertainment we just switched on the the Roadrunner or the 3 Stooges and …and …

Nevermind

18

That reminds me of some dumb book that was on display one week in my college library. It was a mighty tome decrying the over-use of computers in education. The argument on the back cover said (paraphrasing): “Many would point out that computer skills are essential for modern life. So is driving, but our classrooms don’t have cars in them.”

Apparently this author never realized that nearly every public school district has a driver’s education program. Dumbass.

19

Right, but its popularity was symptematic of the decline of an enormously rich, gluttonous, diverse, corrupt and decadent empire. We have football, WWF, and until recently, hockey. Shall we talk about basketball & fan involvement–how big a sensation was THAT fiasco?

But how far away are we from reality TV involving death? Not violent death, at first. Maybe something feelgood about “heroic but futile” struggles against dread disease? And then failed survival attempts at traumatic injuries–when does “X-treme Video” become “Faces of Death?” And then when does THAT product join with “Jackass?” What has the news coverage of the wars become if not a display case for human on human gore?

We’re getting used to seeing corpses in our living rooms EVERY DAY–we didn’t have that in the 70s. A magazine cover picture of the moment before a military execution was inflamatory. That picture wouldn’t get more than 12 hours of fame now–and only then if there were a sexyviolent story to go with it.

We don’t have bona fide bloodsport yet, but it’s in the mail, and I expect we’ll have it within 50 years. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, I’m just saying that the OP’s target of ridicule is spot on, if not-cleverly illustrated.

20

There is also a sharp racial divide, in the US, when it comes to violence, that should be considered. For example, in 2002, the homicide offending rate was 3.6 per 100,000 for whites/hispanics and 24.9 per 100,000 for blacks. If a “culture of violence” does exist, one should probably look at the black population to find it first.