One always hears about kids with guns shooting up other kids because of turf war. Armed robberies where the victim is unncessarily shot after the loot's been given up. Cats being tortured for fun. Suicide bombers in strange lands that kill scores of people at a time. There are so many occasions when we hear news about people hurting other people and animals in a mindless and total disregard for life. I find it very disturbing.
On TV and in video games, we see fictional scenes of violence all the time. People with guns simply taking out other guys. The glass screen is a shield - everything that happens on the other side is ok, just TV. Not real and no one gets hurt, despite all the blood and gore. It's like a routine so it becomes normal - we get desensitized.
I watched 'In The Valley of Elah' on Saturday. It's a serious film about returning soldiers from Iraq who ended up killing one of their fellow soldiers because they simply snapped after a few drinks and a tussle. (Ok I spoiled the show) That aside, it portrayed frightened young men who seriously didn't know what to expect in a foreign land and acted very badly all in the name of democratic liberation. Given the Al Ghraib prison images made public, this movie is about a reality we tend to not want to talk about - that the violence we are exposed to for entertainment may make us really bad people, especially when put into a position of authority.
The lead protagonist in the movie played by Tommy Lee Jones couldn't believe what his son has been up to (drugs and torture), how his son had changed despite what Mom and Pop had instilled in him. (In the movie, his son got stabbed by the fellow soldier, dismembered and parts burned. During the investigation, the participants in the murder all acted normal, like another day on the job.)
At the end of the film, the father hung the US flag he got from his son's belongings upside down at his town's school - a sign of distress.
You should watch Taken as well, the Liam Neeson film about father's rescue of his daughter who gets kidnapped by pimps within hours of arriving in Paris. If you're a parent, you'd freak out at how horrible the world can turn out to be for your kids.
Just the other day at the doctors, I was skimming through a Newsweek article that mentioned a quote from a US Army higher up about men joining the military because they wanted to fight. Yikes.
Kids desensitized to the value of life become adults who think the same way. We live in scary times. I ain't a moral saint but I think we may be doing too little to prevent us going down this path.
Watch youtube videos for In The Valley of Elah
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