Violent America -- any excuse?

I feel reluctant to lump together violence in the arts and violence in real life, but I do have concerns about both. While "Kill Bill" got mixed reviews, I'm not aware that "Chainsaw" got any good reviews. But, of course, folks who would see it on the first weekend probably don't care a whole hell of a lot what the reviewers say.

I speculate that our recent frontier history may have to do with the American way of violence. The obsessiveness of NRA types, harking back to their sense of a God-given right to bear arms as per the Constitution (or their interpretation of it) I think harks back to the frontier mentality. It's an anti-authoritarianism, but not the kind some of us feel comfortable with.

I'm not sure how much of the above makes sense; I'm kind of thinking out loud, I guess, but this is a good topic and an important one.

The gladiators of Rome arose, very specifically, from a move at political exploitation by Iulius Caesar--i won't go into the details, but it was brilliant on his part, violent death is a big seller. Dog fighting, cock fighting, bear baiting--all were popular in Europe for centuries. Public executions were prime entertainment until quite recently in human history. Dog fighting and cock fighting continue to thrive, even though illegal. Bull fighting continues in many nations of the Hispanic world.

From Homer to Homer Simpson, violence has been a part of entertainment. The only difference here is the speed and the reach of the distribution of such films. If it didn't sell, they wouldn't make such movies, and they sell overseas just as they do in the U.S.

Any excuse?

What about social testosterone?
American is the only culture I know of, that considers "chick flick" any movie where sentiments are shown.

Agree, D'art, about the lumping together of life and art except in the sense that art is expression. I was thinking as I cut and pasted the above that art may be a substitute for violence but I think in this case, no. We do tend to encourage violence, don't we... Oh, as an example, the not-so-secret satisfaction of many parents when their kid has "stood up for himself" and beat another kid to a pulp. There's a gender specification there, but what I keep noticing is the increasing violence in women. In some cases, it's women who emulate men as though it were a "liberation" issue. More subtle and harmful is the amount of passive aggression many women use. I'd like to think frontier history were a cause (and would eventually fade away) but more often I think it's a justification.

It's just something I noticed when I first came back to live in the US and seems to be increasing: anger, anger expressed, anger relished, anger as a virtue even when it's expressed violently.

What may be closer to the center of the issue is the anti-authoritarianism you mention. I think the increasing authoritarianism in the US came out of the liberal sixties, odd though that may seem.

Interesting comment, Tartarin, re violence by women as a "liberation" issue. I suppose it can be viewed as empowering, but I'm pessimistic about how much better things are when women can be depicted as just as rough as men in the popular media.

I suspect, more than anything else, directors like Tarantino consider women kicking butt to be somehow titillating. Just a hunch; I don't buy tickets to his films, so those who appreciate his oeuvre can jump on me over this if they wish!

Well, Jackie Brown...

You wimps should spend a week with Ted Nugent hunting for your dinner.

If Ted could be one of the targets, I might not mind. Not sure about him as dinner, though...Maybe just his moronic head as a trophy in the living room.

I believe you owe morons everywhere an apology . . .

Don't know who Ted Nugent is... Missed that one.

BUT, NPR just did a story on a series which the Toledo Blade has started about atrocities in Vietnam. Here's a link: http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=SRTIGERFORCE

From what I heard, the bottom line is that a war crimes investigation should NEVER be done by the alleged perp. But the reason I post the link here is that violence is one thing, atrocities another... Or are they different?

Interesting subject. Just finished 30 minutes on the exercise bike, with "Crossfire" playing on the TVs in the gym. We Americans seem to have embraced contention and aggressiveness as an accepted form of behaviour more than in the past. The standard method of dealing with each other seems to be with confrontations and name calling. Violence sells becasue so many of us feel insecure, or slighted. It certainly seems we have something of an unhealthy culture.

We might start by asking ourselves who we think deserves violence from us as a community and as an individual. What kind of person deserves to be dealt with violently. Are there criteria? Should someone who is violent be dealt with violently? Should we set up a system in which others are appointed to do our violence for us (the police, the warden, the Tiger Force in Nam)?

Is the violence we experience here in the states any worse than on the rest of this planet? From what I read in the news it's no worse and in fact much less violent than in many nations around the globe. Man Is a violent animal always has been and no doubt always will be.

My own experience -- mostly urban Britain and rural Spain -- says not only are we much more violent but we have a taste for violence that other cultures don't. We like it in our films and in news reports. Much of the violence shown in films in Europe is derivative now, imitative of American films. I don't know if this is still true, but certainly London, Madrid and Paris were always much easier towns for women to walk around in -- even at night -- than New York or LA.

It's a culture we could change if we wanted to -- that I'm convinced of. Man has always been capable of violence, hasn't always used it. In any event, being capable of violence and cultivating violence are not the same thing. It's the cultivation of it which is interesting -- and awful.

Tartarin
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France takes on plague of sexual 'rite'


http://www.iht.com/articles/114798.htm