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I am concerned (alarmed, horrified) by the ongoing numbing that is going on across the boards in American pop culture. It seems pandemic. And the X-Files movie was the straw that broke the camel's back for me.
There has been a trend towards the ultra-violent that is becoming, or perhaps already has become, our new "normal". It permeates our entire culture. And it is insidious.
As you know, I have a 15 year old son. It is increasingly difficult to find entertainment for him that does not contain excessive violence. The video games jump from Nemo or Cars to first person killing games. You aren't even a person anymore - you are just shown as the barrel of a gun. If you are a character then you are a kick ass, steroid pumped Super Rambo type with an arsenal of assault weapons to kill your opponent in a blood splattering, points accumulating, death equals winning way.
I used to watch Numb3rs and Criminal Minds because they were different and interesting. Once they both gathered a large audience, the assault began. Now the violence is the show and the perverse torture became the focus rather than the intellectual way of solving the crime. The serial killer/rapist/stalker became the focus not the main characters. I stopped watching.
In a world where we are constantly insulating ourselves from the emotions of violence our depersonalizing vocabulary aids the numbing. 25 troops were killed, the victim died, the patient
did not recover. Where are the words "loved one", " your child", "my neighbor", "Jim or June"?
We are numbers, statistics, casualties, population, voters, purchasers, foreclosures, bankrupcies.
And that makes it easier to disassociate ourselves with the horror, the grief and the pain. To what end? And who does it benefit that we are too numbed to be outraged or even disturbed by the new levels of acceptable, and even entertaining, horror? Is it so we ignore the ever rising number of casualties in this "sure to be quick and bloodless" war? So that we think that the detainees in our military prisoners that are being cruelly tortured are less attention worthy than Britney smoking a cigarette in front of her son?
What is coming next that we need to be conditioned to accept, overlook and acquiese?
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1 comment:
Sandi, I actually had that "troops" things on another rant I wrote, because you're totally right. "Troops" weren't killed, people were.
Bush barring the media from showing the coffins only added to the distance, and it amazes me -- in the worst way possible -- that so many Americans allowed themselves to be blinded and led by the propaganda.
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