I think there are three seperate problems. Kids aren’t getting the training in “right vs. wrong” that they need. Guns are WAY too easy to get. I’m all for the constitution, but come on. They were talking about having armed militias, not armed 13 year olds. And the media play on the killers is sickening. The Columbine kids are played up as victims, poor kids who slipped through the cracks, instead of psychopaths. When someone shoots up a post office, they don’t get on the cover of People. Klebold and Harris did. And until each of these problems is addressed, none of them are going away.
One must have chaos in oneself to give birth to a dancing star. -Nietzche
I saw Fight Club the other night. I did not feel that the movie glorified violence as a whole, but some scenes certainly kicked my adrenal system into a heightened state. At first I felt a little bit guilty about this. But then I decided not to beat myself up over it.
The best lack all conviction
The worst are full of passionate intensity.
*
Don’t worry about it. Even talking, in enough detail, about fighting is enough to start putting your body into “fighting” mode. Your brain is accessing the information it has on fighting, which makes you think that you might be getting into a fight soon (think of it as a kind of yellow alert), so it decides to get ready, just in case.
Spiritus, you’ve decided not to beat yourself up over it? Is that a pun or what? Eh? Eh? Anyone else catch that? You only need to answer if you’ve seen the movie, otherwise it won’t make much sense.
As to the movie dramatizing fighting, it probably does.
Yep – you have found me out, Surgoshan. I deserve to be punished.
More seriously, of course mass media has a behavioral effect upon the viewing population, taken as a statistical whole. All art attempts ot have an effect upon the audience. Sometimes this effect is benign, sometimes it is exalting, sometimes it is objectionable. Often, it is not the effect that the artist intended. The real question, then becomes what do we do about it. As a government–nothing. Free expression demands that uncomfortable thoughts be protected. As a society–educate the populace as to the issues involved and make it easy for consumers to make informed decisions. As individuals–take responsibility for your own choices and for those of your children. Speak out when you are offended, but realize that offensive content is not grounds for government action.
The best lack all conviction
The worst are full of passionate intensity.
*
Good example. I saw Fight Clubtwice, and thought it was a great reflection of what I was seeing in my male friends, the immasculating effects of being raised without fathers. And I was very impressed by the concept of modern nihlism, and the concept that we are ruled by our stuff, that our stuff makes us feel whole. My father, a therepist, thought it was just gratuitiously violent. He’s definately smart enough to get the underlying themes (unlike the morons who were in the theater with us, who kept screaming “COOL!” whenever someone got nailed…) but couldn’t get over the violence. Perhaps that’s generational. However, back to those morons, I’m sure THEY saw it, and just walked away with the concept that beating the crap outta your friends is equatible to having a good time. Should the director be held accountable for those morons?
One must have chaos in oneself to give birth to a dancing star. -Nietzche
You only need to answer if you’ve seen the movie, otherwise it won’t make much sense.