entertainment

It can't be denied that throughout human history man has a blood lust.

We saw it in the Roman Coliseums where man was pitted against man to fight to the death for the entertainment of the masses, The honor of the gladiator who after subduing his opponent would look to the emperor for the thumbs up or the thumb down which was usually determined by the will of the people.

We see it in movies, tv serials, sports, competitions even in games for kids.

Is it the body count that defines a "good" action movie?

Is Hollywood to blame for the apathy and total lack of empathy for others?

Kids shooting kids, kids shooting parents, kids shooting themselves.

When a society becomes desensitized to violence that apathy doesn't stop there, it grows

Imagine the next generation if we take this generation as an example.

Things didn't start out with gratuitous violence being a selling point so where did the cruelty come from?

Lets go back a bit and see if a pattern exists...

Archie Bunker was the most bigoted person anyone could meet. His quips didn't end with skin tone, it carried over to genealogy and even over to his family relationships.

Call your wife a dingbat all your marriage and see if she doesn't pull a Lorena Lobbit on you, or call a stepson meathead repeatedly and see what kind of respect they will have for you in later years.

But it was all for comedy and yet a generation later racial sensitivity was so inflamed even a double murder trial called foul because of a comment once made.

Or how about science fiction... the classic star trek... Kirk wasn't just inter-racial, he was inter-species. Isn't this similar to bestiality? What about the Hannibal Lectors... Anthony Hopkins had such a screen presence one movie wasn't enough for Hollywood.

What could ever even inspire a writer to traverse such a dismal path of despair? Were Neilson ratings too low for Leave it to Beaver and they switched to a more violent rather than wholesome format?

Are we the viewers to blame? Is it what everybody wanted and producers merely complied with what sold the best?

Or how about abusing an animal so you can ride it for 8 seconds and points were awarded on how well you could make it dance by spurring it on?

Are we so Barbaric we are unwilling to admit the detrimental affect these outlooks have on humanity and has had on humanity throughout the ages?

We haven't come very far from our lust for blood have we? What they think sells is violence, smut, profanity, drugs, crime, crime investigation, and lest we forget, a body count.

When do games become too lame and reality rears its ugly head?

Do we need to see a man concuss another for a bag of money? The concussions eventually eliminating normal brain function... the thirst for gambling on who will be victorious when they are probably both losers down the years?

So who is to blame for our degradation of morals? The violence just keeps coming until the end of the season when a new violence re-emerges. Banshee ends this week and Game of Thrones begins the end of March. Do we really need to see those make-believe sex scenes or the promotion of two men making out in order to fill a time slot?

Are producers so hard-up they really have nothing to add other than what is detrimental to the morality of a society?

What do you think? Is eloquence and classy acting a dying ideal?. As it is, they're in a class of their own...

I'm kind of glad I don't have any kids and I feel sorry for those who have the future to contend with if our track record continues this downward spiral.

Would you call that entertainment? While Hollywood has already portrayed it a few times, when will the real hunting of humans become sport?
... the way things look, if its not already being done in secret, its only a matter of time.

Our country was forged in violence. Violence is in its roots. Our country was founded after the American Revolution, where we violently rebelled against the British. We ended the immoral norm of slavery through violence in the Civil War. We stopped the Nazis and their annihalation of the Jewish race through violence. We have used violence throughout our history to make the world better. Our entertainment is not so much glorifying violence as it is glorifying the good that our violence ends up achieving.

reply to post by Wang Tang


Was it forged in violence because that is all mankind has ever known as a means to "better" a situation?

Just how much better have things gotten since then? We have perfected our weapons and our aim is a lot further

wrong thing for the right reason is still wrong. That cycle of violence will never end until we go through that paradigm shift of being conscious of each other.

What good could come from building a bigger nuke, or a faster kill?

Only end in sight is when people feel what others feel and show some compassion for all not just see it as a necessary evil that dollars worth of hardware could remove.

That is of course unless its the business we want to keep our job security in