It used to be that around age 8-10, young men were brought out into the woods to hunt or out to the shores to fish. They learned the value of a life insomuch as death should be purposeful. Kill a deer for its meat to stay fed and its hide for warmth or fashion. Take a fish for its meat or let it go to catch it again when it’s bigger.
Nowadays everything’s digital. Why fish when you can watch some guy do it on Saturday morning TV? Why hunt when Ted Nugent will do it for your on the Outdoor Life Network? Why dirty your hands fixing your car or your home?
We’ve become observers instead of actors. Those who act, in real life or cinema, entertain and are thus simply fodder for always-on TV.
Remember back in the day when TV actually stopped around 10 or 11 PM? I remember as a kid waking up at 4 in the morning, turning on the TV and seeing static or just some stock station screen. Nowadays, TVs always on, restaurants are 24/7, Internet is always there. We’ve become a culture immune to everything REAL in the world. Death is just something we see on TV.