Welcome, Guest!
Give 'em what they want
Published: Tuesday, April 8, 2008 - 8:11pm
Violence is portrayed everywhere in the media. From movies to music, there is not a single medium free from it. And we as a society enjoy this.
You cannot walk into a movie theater without seeing an advertisement for a movie involving some form of violence. Why is that? Why has this become such a big part of entertainment?
Some think that such content has created the real violence in our culture and attempt to censor the movies and music and video games and books that they think are creating the problem.
However, there really is no point to this senseless censoring.
Entertainment reflects culture; it does not create it. Violence was not created by the television. We created everything we love and hate on cable.
One might then encourage parents to take control of what their kids watch and read and listen to, but I don't think that will solve anything either. Kids will always be able to find mature content no matter how hard parents try to "protect" their children.
What would the children even be "protected" from? Music, movies, books, and the like provide an escape from the stresses and tensions of everyday life. Someone may be able to relate to a particular movie character or find comfort in certain song lyrics, even if they aren't role-model material. I think taking that away from someone is more likely to cause anger and violence than the material itself.
In order to stop the violence, we must change the mindset of people as a whole. Restricting entertainment media will only prolong the issue. Sometimes you must give people what they want; the only way to counteract that is to change what they want in the first place.
Comments
Are you citing particular
Are you citing particular precedent here? This reminds me of when KMFDM, Rammstein and Marilyn Manson were blamed for the Columbine Shootings, and this is a good argument, but what brings this up? Have I missed some blatant censorship recently?
yeah actually
well recently i can only think of the entire Manhunt controversy across most European countries. in case you didn't know, Manhunt is a particularly violent (and crappy) video game which was banned in a lot of countries, including but not limited to, Britain. however, this ban has recently been lifted after much debate over the issue.
in the US, countless number of states have tried and failed at banning the sale of violent video games, the most notorious proponent of this being Jack Thompson. in fact, even stephen king wrote on the issue. check it out- http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20188502,00.html.
"Entertainment reflects
"Entertainment reflects culture; it does not create it." Opinion or fact? Is this a chicken and egg question? Well obviously culture came before entertainment. Or did it? I'd like to point out that culture can be spread through media such as radio and television, an obvious example of the spreading would be the slang we use, or how everybody in the US knows the soulja boy dance. There are studies to back any argument, but look into the ones about violent video games. There is an overwhelming amount of evidence to back censorship. Not that I personally back censorship, but is media so very clear cut that censoring censorship would solve all society's problems?
Post new comment