Are we being desensitized to extreme violence?

I know horror movies have always been popular and not just movies but books,art, plays,comics and stuff like that people find entertaining. I have recently noticed though a strange ammount of torture oriented horror movies like: Hostel,Saw 1-3, Touriste, Devils rejects and lots more I cant think of.

Now onto video game like FPS and other games where players kill each other, I play alot of FPS and I can see how some weak minded people can get to into their games and loose control of reality. I dont blame nor think violent games should be removed but something just seems weird to me about the ammount of violence the media is exposing people to.

Are we being prepared for a large scale war? Maby the NWO wants us to build more hatred to we are much easier to divide and conquer? Maby I am just makin something outta nothing but I think its worth discussion and maby someone with better research skill then me can find more info out regarding this new wave of horror culture.
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Edited spelling in title

[edit on 19/12/06 by masqua]

I think we're being prepared for a society of constant surveillance and control by those that hold the power. Every time someone commits some horrible crime the government says we'll all be safer if they watch everyone a bit more.

Sure the movies and video games desensitize people to violence, but I think the people that commit these crimes are already predisposed to violence. The available media just reinforces the acceptability of their actions in an already disturbed mind.
I think a lot more conditioning would be needed for a sane, non-violent person to be pushed over the edge than just playing video games or watching movies.

One thing that concerns me though is that many young children spend hours a day killing and fighting in the virtual world of video games. This is the period of their life when the brain is developing, it's when they are establishing moral values. If all you write on that blank slate is violence and anger and a detachment from reality you will end up with someone that feels no compassion to people in the real world.

Putting a rating on a movie or game has no value at all. If little Johnny's 17 year old brother is playing a violent game, you can bet the younger kid is playing it as well.

I'd really like to see the results of a study done on juvenile offenders that looks at the amount of time they spent playing violent games or viewing blood and gore on the TV.

Building more jails and adding more surveillance to our entire society seems like a pretty crappy solution to the problem....
You just watch, in a few years they'll start tagging everyone that commits any offense. They'll say it's for your safety, they'll say it's for the good of society.
But before you know it they'll be able to track and control everyone. :shk:

I don't think we're being prepared for anything, other than to be fed excitement to the point where we have short attention spans. We're adrenaline junkies. Everything is shorter/quicker and louder. It's fueled more by the pace of advertising (jam as many commercials into 30 seconds as you can and grab the money) as by our short-loud-noisy music and music vids.

Most movies and tv shows have very shallow plotlines and rather improbable situations.

I'm not sure we're desensitized to it -- remember, our ancestors saw public hangings as entertainment. We aren't back to that point yet.

Originally posted by Byrd
I don't think we're being prepared for anything, other than to be fed excitement to the point where we have short attention spans. We're adrenaline junkies. Everything is shorter/quicker and louder. It's fueled more by the pace of advertising (jam as many commercials into 30 seconds as you can and grab the money) as by our short-loud-noisy music and music vids.

I hear what you are saying but it just seems weird to me that some of the recently released movies feature torture oriented horror and alot of the new most popular video games feature apocolyptic battles. On top of all of that we got videos now from actual live combat and brutal executions easily found on any known vid sharing site. If could just be a product of our generation but there is a possibility we are being decensotized to accept violence as normal.

Okay...

Torture vids on the net are really quite Underground. You wont find them unless you go looking for them. So, they aren't a means of Mass Desensitization.

Movies... Splatter movies have been around for decades. What is Friday the Thirteenth up to now? Chapter 11 at least? There's been a slow ramp up in the gore, as each movie tries to outdo the last one. Evolution, not Intelligent Design.

Games... Considering there is a very strong Govt push to ban violent games, admittedly from sources that probably aren't in the Inner Circle, it's an interesting double play to publicly inhibit, but secretly encourage the games.
If you follow the gaming scene, you'd know that the developers of these games are often rather eccentric, independently minded people who would be quite amused to be considered part of the coming Evil Empire.

or are you being redirected from the true massive killings going on?.......

I love MGS3. Especially the battle with the End. He is a sniper that is fast, has prepared ambush positions, and is virtually undetectable. The fear you have as you slowly move through the forest is something of horror. The idea that at any moment he could come and drop you. The fear.

But you still trudge on. Suddenly, you move slowly and see the glimmer of his scope in the sun. But it is too late. Hit once again. Stamania gone, Snake falls.

It's over.
The fear.

I think this can be applied to horror flicks and (obvoiusly) somewhat volient games.

We trudge on. Not because we being "desensitized". No no, we pay to be there. We want the fear. The risk. The hate. The emotion. People have lost their will to live because there is no more conflict. We lose sight of what purpose is. To live. We are all serial killers, but "desensitized" by our society. Is that bad? No.

Basically we drive each other so sane we become insane.

If we were all raised like John from Halo, would we be able to do the things he did in his world? To kill with no remorse. The answer is yes. And I think that will be the downfall of man. Man will one day see his brother as a threat to his exsitence. And the constant rut he faces everyday to act ivilized will come to an end. And the it will begin.

The fear...and then...
It's over.

de sensitized? nah,
visual effects just keep gettin better.
and, as with any good movie, the kopykats move in and try makin
a buck too.this adds to the amount that is available at the time.

also, with increase in population comes the increase in
nobheads with no social skills and very limited MORAL fibre.
which is a reflection of their upbringing.

your not being desensitized, your being deluded.

As was already pointed out, in the past one could find abundant examples of *real* torture as entertainment. Public hangings, gladiators, etc. Human life has in the past been looked on as worthless; a lord faced no problems at all for killing, maiming, raping etc a few servants or the poor who happened to be in the wrong place when he was in a foul mood. Countess Elizabeth Báthory wasn't even particularly noticed until she started in on girls of high stature. So I believe that for the most part humans are, and have always been desensitized to violence in one way or another.

Actually, in moderation I believe such movies/games/etc can be healthy, though the key there would be the 'moderation' bit. We need to learn to deal with our emotions in a healthy way, channel them into something that is not truly destructive. I read a study awhile back, and the source escapes me at the moment, that found that during times of hardship and widespread depression or pessimism that horror movies tended to become more popular. Rather than indicative of an attempt at desensitization, I'd be more inclined to investigate that line of thought.

Just rambling.

I think the reality is quite the opposite. We - in developed countries at least - are sheltered, protected, nannied by the state, and 'softer' than we have ever been in human history. In a lifetime how often does the average person witness in person a violent or gruesome death, or even a corpse for that matter? But up to just a few hundred years ago gruesome death was a familiar sight; sometimes even a form of entertainment. Nowadays grown men faint witnessing childbirth.

And take my word for it, photographs, video footage, and movies do NOT desensitise you to real violence, gore, and death witnessed in person. I grew up watching slasher and gore films courtesy of my much older sister's misguidance, and they quickly bored me. Later as an adult I worked for a few years in a profession where I got to see a lot of death. The first time I saw the aftermath of a gruesome death was a guy who fell from the roof of a 25 storey building - I felt weak at the knees and nearly puked my guts out. Watch UFC fights as much as you want, but when you get in a street fight against a physically superior opponent your adrenal gland will let you know that you haven't been desensitised at all.

If anything, we are becoming ever more ill-prepared to deal with violence, compounded by the misconception that if we can watch it on TV then we can understand and handle it.





[edit on 2006-12-24 by wecomeinpeace]

it is lust, curiosity towards hope. hope for a result in what binds us. do not get trapped into any type of ficticous barrings, there is no desentizing until you our locked into the real world of situational awareness, the mind is a muscle you never know until you are face to face with what is. when there are ways to understand the motive of the evil heart, it is compassion, we can find a pure path.

fantasy violence is a jail you lock yourself into until you look up and realize the clouds are your there... hope this helps, my thoughts.

-figaro

I once went to a Midnight to Dawn Horror movie marathon... Texas Chainsaw, Hills Have Eyes, Dawn of the Dead, etc... a good night though the eyes got heavy around 4am.

After all that carnage, we walked out into the morning sun, and there on the pavement someone had killed and partially gutted a small sparrow. I'm sure it was deliberately placed there as a rather extreme lesson by someone.

A way of saying, "All that stuff on the screen was just pretend. THIS is reality. This is true horror".

And it was true. That little dead bird affected me far more deeply than anything I'd seen in that theatre.