Posted on 07/27/2012 9:07:00 AM PDT by Dysart
BREAK
Did "The Dark Knight Rises" cause the Aurora shootings? No, of course not. One movie doesn't have that kind of power, and we don't even know if the shooter had seen it. But a million violent movies have the cumulative power to desensitize and destabilize, to make things worse, and that's what we've been seeing the past quarter century or so, the million movies. Each ups the ante in terms of carnage. About 15 years ago, a TV interviewer noted my concern at the damage I thought was being done by the highly violent, highly sexualized nature of our culture, of our movies and TV and music. It will make us more brutish, I'd argued, and some will imitate what they see.
The interviewer was good-humored but skeptical: Hollywood makes a lot of comedies. Why don't we see the country breaking out in laughter?
Violence is different, I said, because there are unstable people among us, and they are less defended against dark cultural messages. The borders of the minds of the unstable are more porous. They let the darkness in. You can go to a horror movie and be entertained or amused: "This is scary, I love getting scared, and I love it because I know it isn't real." But the unstable are not entertained by darkness. They let it in. They are inspired by it. Sometimes they start to live in the movie in their heads.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
And note the distinction betwixt social commentary by Noonan, and most I know who feels as she does, with the Left and how they agitate for redress through legislation.
She illustrates that the exhausting work of shielding children from it is the mark of good parenting. And I agree fully with her, that may be the best we can do along with protecting and exercising our 2nd amendment rights from those who don't-- and from the forsaken lunatics.
She's mirroring what I've been saying about this, only a lot better.
Violence has steadily dropped since 1992, but movies haven't gotten any less violent.
And 1992 was precisely when the first somewhat realistic first-person-shooter computer and video games first started coming out.
There's no mid or long-term explosion in societal violence that needs explaining (the last couple of years in specific places - Chicago, Phildelphia, etc. are of course a different story.)
If a large enough segment of America did not want this stuff it would die for lack of market, as more egregiously turkeyesque media works do.
Understanding the times: the main change in the culture is the increase in secular humanist worldview and Marxist worldview values and decrease in Christian worldview values.
Thanks for posting the article.
“... and we don’t even know if the shooter had seen it.”
Based on the fact that this was a premier showing of the movie, and that Holmes started shooting people right at the beginning of the movie (possible during previews and before it even started), I’d say it’s a good bet he didn’t see it.
The interviewer said there are a lot of comedies and we don’t see the nation breaking out in laughter. True, because as we become accustomed to comedy, it takes MORE to make us laugh, just as we become accustomed to violence, it takes MORE to make us withdraw in horror.
“The borders of the minds of the unstable are more porous. They let the darkness in.”
So what? We should cater our social policies based on what a few unstable people might do? That won’t get rid of the unstable people, and we’ll never be able to expunge all of the bad things that might influence them. It’s an exercise in futility.
A million movies - really?
Such hyperbole has no place in a calm discussion of the issue.
Regards,
“And 1992 was precisely when the first somewhat realistic first-person-shooter computer and video games first started coming out. “
Castle Wolfenstein 3d was first but I remember Doom the most, especially the Alien mod and the Barney mod. And you know it was going to be good when the biggest weapon was simply called the BFG.
She’s a writer and you’ll have to abstract a little bit. She is painting a picture. Style. You know, this is not a technical document.
She’s a writer and you’ll have to abstract a little bit. She is painting a picture. Style. You know, this is not a technical document.
Quit bringing up these pesky facts:)
I'm aware of the dropping per capita violent crime rate stats, Noonan is pointing to the aping by some vulnerable people of the acts who otherwise would not act out. (Her POV may not be obvious unless you read the article in full context)
This tiny segment wouldn't move the crime stats appreciably one way or the other; we wouldn't see it reflected. We know already that the vast majority of people aren't driven to carry out film-inspired violent acts, but commit crimes for other reasons. (Concealment of identity in robberies, etc.) So entertainment vehicles really have no inspirational qualities for them. No one really knows why the overall crime rt is dropping slightly.
I want Noonan to be Romney’s press secretary. She handles topics like a good customer service rep. Step 1 agree with the complaint. Step 2 talk calmly until you reach a point where their complaint is not as unpleasant to them as listening to Noonan’s gentle memes. The complaint has not been addressed but the complainer no longer cares. By then there is no time for any more complaints.
***Sometimes they start to live in the movie in their heads.***
Sounds like the 1960s all over again. When James Bond donned a white dinner jacket, those jackets sold out. The critics screamed about the “sadistic” movie DR NO. I’ve watched more than one person strut down the street imitating John Wayne’s walk.
The MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE was at the theater and pulled when JFK was shot. They blamed movies, TV shows, comic books, war toys, army surplus guns.
The MSM went on a real anti-gun binge clear up till RFK got shot then they went berzerk and led the US in a national anti gun panic.
Again they blamed movies, TV shows, comics, war toys, army surplus rifles and handguns, saturday night specials.
SO, TV shows dumbed down to kiddie shows, comics toned it down for a while, the 1968 gun control act was passed, (”Today we make America safe by taking guns out of the hands of criminals!”-LBJ when he signed the law)
War toys disappeared. Movies from the 1940s through the 1960s were butchered to remove “violence”.
But the movie industry said they would self-police themselves with a joke of a rating system.
With this joke of “self censorship” they re-cut and added more blood, vile language and sex to the films and it has gotten worse over the years.
Why are so many of these movies filed with product placements unless it is for people to be influenced to buy them. Same with violence.
After the first DIRTY HARRY movie it became almost impossible to find a .44 magnum, and when you did they were high,high priced.
Anyone who doubts what I’ve said needs to go to a good library and read the major newspapers and magazines from 1968.
Noonan and others only observe.
I think the media deserves the entirety of the blame for the Dark Knight shootings, but it does not have much to do with violent media content.
This shooter breaks the type of most mass murderers that we have seen starting with Charles Whitman.
This guy seems to have gone to lengths to ensure that he survived in order to bathe in the media spotlight that he knew would be focused on him. There do not seem to any anger issues or a martyr complex with this guy.
Since everyone and his brother seem to be engaging in pop culture psychology, I will take my shot.
He wanted to be a celebrity in his own reality television show and he seems to have succeeded.
The media is all about the worldly and temporal values of celebrity and personality even more than it is about violence and sex.
The quickest way to tremendous wealth and fame for no talent females like Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian was a sex tape.
For some highly educated young guy like this shooter, he had no path to celebrity but to randomly kill a bunch of innocent people. For him it was an easy choice, because as Milton wrote, the world is full of those who would rather rule and reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.
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