Is the increased violence in films and TV making kids desensitized to it? I went to see Alien V Predator ‘Requiem’ on monday, and yes, the effects were good - but it just doesn’t stand up to the original Alien for instance. That film was TEN times more frightening and barely showed ANY gore or violence at all.
AVPR was SO violent for so much (most) of the film, I just did not see the point.
You also have the ‘trend’ for films which include endless butchering and drawn out hideous torture of young and attractive people - I have never understood this type of film, and now it is so realistic it may just as well be a Snuff movie. The Hostel, Saw etc.
Do these films make young people (as many many kids see t hese films before they should be able to) more violent or more softened to violence? Does it make them think its ok?
The above film I saw was also rated a ‘15’. Back in the day there were only a few ratings hre in the UK. We had the U (universal - cartoons etc), the PG (parental guidance which we still have), the 15 (15yr olds and over) and the 18. We now have a 12 and a 12A (12 accompanied by an adult i think). The old movie ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’ is an 18. This film has virtually no violence in it (certainly not comparable to modern movie violence), certainly hardly any swearing, and yet it is STILL classified as an 18, and yet kids of 15 (and probably younger) can go and see shit such as AVPR.
Obviously this stuff is selling - but why do people crave more and more blood and violence? I’ve started to get very tired of it. Films overuse it and its a long time since i’ve seen the use of suspense in place of CGI effects and monsters.
Don’t even get me started on the goddamn endless stream of shitty remakes. But thats a different post!
Do you think it is the media which is causing the rise in violence with young people, or do you think that happens separately to that.
Yeah, I’d go with that. I think there could be an element of chicken and egg though.
I would imagine that contact sports and martial arts, boxing etc should help with this suppression though? And those who risk their lives in other countries fighting for ‘peace’, they famously come home and are forever changed, often for the worse.
Do you think that there is a cure for it, for the supression? How do you think it could be changed?
interesting… i believe violence in movies has made me quote the opposite of agressive. i get squimish if i hurt someone else or even imagine myself getting hurt (nastily)
but always when it does happen, its not as bad as i thought it would be. does this reflect of my potential agression?
It’s a little confusing to answer this question straight! I can’t say watching violence in films and media undoubtly cause agression and violence in all people that watching 'em, for everyone it cause different things. Someone maybe laugh, someone thrill, someone shake, someone cry, someone learn…I donno what is this question all about, but if u want to know if we decrease the violence in media then we have less violence out there then it’s totally wrong! Because it’s all a little reflect of our real world!
You remind of a individual brought up to be a pacifist.
In reality a pacifist has zero survival capability beyond civilization. I think you need to explore these instincts of agression in yourself more clearly.
“Rambo” (2008)
Total Body Count: 236
Kill Count Per Minute: 2.59
Torture Scenes: 3
Time of First Death In Film: 3min 22sec
Good Guys Killed: 113
Bad Guys Killed By Rambo: 83
Bad Guys Killed By Supporting Characters: 40
Compare that with:
“First Blood” (1982)
Total Body Count: 1
Kill Count Per Minute: 0.01
Torture Scenes: 2
Time of First Death In Film: 29min 31sec
Good Guys Killed: 0
Bad Guys Killed By Rambo: 0
Bad Guys Killed By Supporting Characters: 0
I’m not so sure that this is true. If someone is starving they would likely be willing to kill an animal and eat it regardless of their professed beliefs - or kill a person in self-defense. It seems to me more a question of skills which are either honed or forgotten. Should we hone skills that seem inherently aggressive? It seems like practically we might need to - for instance to maintain a military. So of course problems arise from that…
Anyway, I do think violence in mass media can be a significant harmful influence on people and society - mostly in children and people who might not be quite sane in the first place. What to do about it is the real question though.
According to most studies, the correlation of personal aggression to media portrayed aggression is only viable in those individuals genetically predisposed to hostility and violence; bi-polarism, schizophrenia, sociopathy, dementia, autism, mongoloidism and/or psychopathy, in any/all of the variant degrees of each condition, (schizo-effective being lesser than schizophrenic and severity of condtion plays into severity of aggression).
And i expect there are far higher instances of all these mental disorders etc in people these days than there ever have been. And does nurture have anything to do with us developing said mental problems? I think it could definitely help…
That only applies if you believe in the myth that violent people are somehow mentally ill. Bias sciences of the pathetic “humanist” pursuasion certainly believe this.
Hostility and violence is a very natural attribute I would argue where evolutionism certainly supports this.
Quite honestly I am sick of psychologists guided by their novel absurd inceptive views of humanism in how they correlate behaviors of individuals in real life.
Greater degrees of instability due to an unprecedented numerical rise of instances? No.
Greater appearance of instability due to an unprecedented numerical rise in humans? Yes.
Nature/nuture … those arguments become very long and highly divisive. I’m strictly on the scientific side of the table, we won’t likely agree on outcome or process.
At what point did I reference or quote psychology? Neurology also does studies on matters such as this, primarily to contest the findings of “soft sciences” such as psychology. For example, there is a direct correlation between the amount of white matter in the brain, (the actual hardwiring component for peripheral communications), and pedophilia. It comes from recent neuroscience studies.
It’s not prudent to make assumptions, I have no interest in soft sciences.
I’d like to hear it though. What is the hard science answer to this? Lobotomize people who are a danger to society? Society to become a little like Minority Report?
