Why do we like to watch people die and suffer?
Because they probably deserve it.
From “the touch”, 24th, 2007:
I wrote:
[i]"Asketh not for the touch of numb, deformed hands,
Holding inherent, unearned power…
My sadness is made of reason;
Not self-pity.
Much joy is made of ignorance…
Obsession with a temporary…
Only an immediate danger, slapping against mans face
Can awaken his ignorant
Disgenic “mind”
For a short moment.
They defend the slow-disease.
The men producing cigarettes – are not seen as murderers.
They flinch and cry out at the honesty
Of real “murders”,
Lunging to punish…
Mostly refraining from killing
Due to fear and guilt.
And at the same time, they pour in vast amounts of violence
Endlessly
Into their media,
And that is their thrill, their joy, their excitement…
Their false victory.
Instead of overcoming and defeating evil men in reality,
They fantasize in a lazy chair
And pretend
To defeat evil men by the thousands.
So their weapon becomes fantasy
And their un-met enemy is nature herself.
How are enemies made?
Only through disharmony."[/i]
It’s allot like slutty porno,
And it’s a false subsidization…
A symptom suppressing displacement of the fragmented entrails of personal & evolutionary failures.
Unactuated, retarded desire for action.
People that like to watch the suffering and dying in the cinema. Are people
who apparently don’t understand all the suffering and hate that is taking
places elsewhere that are all too real. And the profits that are being made
off of it, that money can easily just be giving to all the genocide victims and to stop genocide all around the world. Eliminate all the suffering and pointless killings. Then go back to Hollywood and make the movies and
everyone can remember all the suffering and dying as history.
We don’t always like to watch people suffer. Sometimes it bothers us, sometimes it doesn’t, but here are some reasons why we might enjoy it:
Revenge, curiosity (Jackass), boredom…
I could expound on why we might like revenge, why we’re curious, and how suffering alleviated boredom if you really want to know.
I do not like to see others suffer if I do not hate them. I don’t think anyone enjoy seeing other people suffering. but see, people don’t like seeing others being happier than themselves so they prefer suffering to joy.
If someone suffers, that person is worse off than you so that makes you feel better in comparison. I know it is stupid and crude, but that’s how our society operates.
There’s a more charitable way of expressing the idea that watching people die in films makes us feel “good”. (I watch violent movies a lot, and like to be charitable to myself 
) It’s that watching death and violence in fictional films provides catharsis for the viewer.
A couple of definitions of ‘catharsis’:
Joker wrote:
People don’t enjoy the dying or suffering itself, they enjoy the context, such as a interesting plot or conceptually ‘bad’ people getting a boot full of karma.
Count me in for the ‘catharsis’ explanation.
Things like ‘Faces of Death’, ‘Grand Theft Auto’, ect. would seem to belie that retribution scenario, since those deaths are generally without context.
I’ve never seen ‘Faces of Death’ although I’ve been told about it. It seems to be something people see out of curiosity than enjoyment. I have played grand theft auto though, and throughout the game having shot thousands of little pixel people dead, I never felt as though I was seeing anybody die. Tell me anybody has.
Of course not.
That isn’t what catharsis is about.
Here is a blog discussing GTA as catharsis, I think it is readily applicable to other forms of violence in the media as well:
There are hyperlinks in the article for some of the assertions made (some of them good, some not), so here is the link: bexhuff.com/aristotle-loves-gta
If you would prefer a slightly more scholarly blogs on the subject, check out: Catharsis theory and media effects
While keeping Aristotle’s definition in mind: Catharsis
GTA, Mafia movies, and Action movies are about transgressing social and physical bounds.
Stealing cars, killing, fighting, are social bounds. The fun is being able to cross them. If killing and stealing cars were common place, then the game would be boring. It would be a day in the life of Joe Schmoe. It would be like playing a video game about a guy in a cubicle.
GTA and the like are liberating. They allow us to see what we can be.
I would bet $300 to anyone on this website that there is probably a direct correlation between people that are more repressed and powerless because of fear of society and the level of pleasure gotten from GTA and gangster films. The more powerless, the more pleasure they get from being able to kill.
Would you describe it as them releasing themselves from those bonds? I agree with your point, though.
Vicariously. They’re still bound. They’re bound until they get no pleasure from it.
Funny thing is mobsters actually hate killing people. It’s a pain. You got to clean them up, get rid of the blood, drag the body, and all that. It’s a lot of hard work.
There’s a perfect exchange for me right there. I’ve always been fascinated with justice in fiction vs. justice in reality.
The fictional hero usually “tries” to save the villain just once because it’s the responsable thing, but by “accident” makes the villain experience what the villain truly deserve . . . by some primal consensus of ours I guess?.
How many movies do you see constant gore and death?
How many movies do you see forgiveness for murder?
How many movies do you see successful rape, and the rapist survives and is forgiven?
Woody Allen has two movies where guys get away with murder. They’re not forgiven. They just get away with it and live happily ever after. The point of the movies he tells you is that life is meaningless. Woody’s on the money.
Slingblade has a guy that is forgiven for murder too.