It has been said that homo sapiens are the most violent creatures on the planet. There is ample evidence to support that claim. If you doubt that, go to a multiplex and check on the trailers that precede the feature attraction. There are usually at least a half dozen and here is your assignment: List all the acts of violence that are seen. On the rare occasion that a G movie is screened you can give that a pass, but all the others will have scenes, usually multiple, that depict mayhem. It’s not just the movies; TV is just as bad. Almost every promo revolves around a similar axis of gunfire, arson, and explosions.
There will be multiple shootings, fire bombings, invasion of flesh eating aliens, high speed crashes, savage beatings, and collapsing buildings, all designed for our viewing pleasure. That’s just in the first preview. One thinks it can’t get worse in subsequent offerings but somehow they manage to delve deeper into violence.
There is a simple answer to the question of why such is the standard fare of entertainment: It makes money. Advertisers like it because they know it will have a wide audience; never mind that the tacit endorsement of the sponsor adds legitimacy to the presentation. Producers know the more violent the greater the revenue at the box office; it is just a business transaction.
The blame cannot be placed just on Hollywood. How can we explain the burgeoning interest in mixed martial arts. Boxing has some rules; professional wrestling is an act, albeit a violent one, but MMA or, as it is sometimes called cage fighting, has but one feature: to watch two humans try to reduce each other to a bloody pulp.
Now we are subjected to seeing women enter the fray. Heaven help the grandparent who, instead of a ballet dance, is invited to a cage fight featuring a granddaughter. In the interest of full disclosure, I have grandchildren who hold black belts in karate, but they don’t fight and the discipline they have learned is, I believe, a good thing.
That’s enough of the cataloging of violent entertainment. The real question is why we enjoy activities that depict intentional harm to another person?
First of all, watching it can implant a feeling of relief that it isn’t me involved in the fight. Such a thought can be quickly replaced by the realization that it could be me or someone about whom I care. A more dangerous, although unconscious, thought is that we can settle differences with violent behavior. Can you imagine a world where bitter arguments were settled by reasoned discussion rather than violence? Extend that thought further and imagine how many tickets would be sold to such a movie . . . no problem finding a seat in that theater!
I doubt that this is an epidemic that is confined to our country. There seems to be a deep-seated need for this type of stimulation and certainly those who produce and/or sponsor it will continue to do so as long as it is profitable. That’s their right but the public has the right to say enough is enough and find a healthy substitute to occupy our free time.
It would take many dissertations to prove the linkage between violence as entertainment and senseless violence in the streets, in the schools, in the homes, but I think public endorsement of the culture of violence lends credence to the idea that is normal human behavior.
Nothing can be done to change human nature many will say. I offer this: Humans are the only species that widely endorses violence. Lower animals, with the exception of some primates, never kill for pleasure. We are referred to as homo sapiens, “knowing man,” doesn’t it seem logical that we should know better and not entertain ourselves with violence?
Hayden Hollingsworth