To be Violent, or not to be… Should that be the question?

Violence is all around us, and because we are not angels or gods, this violence will be here to stay. We, as human beings, are flawed. We have emotions which cause us to be happy, sad, angry, passive, etc. Violence is using physical force to hurt and abuse another. At times, violence results in murder, severe injury, lawsuits, deformation; the list goes on. With all the negative connections to violence, it’s displayed all around us as entertainment. Why do we watch horror movies with people getting their body parts cut off, why do we watch live feeds of the military attacking and bombing people, why do we watch football players knock each other senseless? We watch it because we acknowledge violence and except it and need see how it happened; curiosity kills the cat.

We acknowledge the fact that people are suffering around the world, but seeing is believing.  You can tell me that a rebel freedom fighter cut a man’s head off in a video and streamed it all over the internet, but you’d never believe that a human being could stand to saw away at another’s head. As you click on to the site and watch the soldier screaming, you don’t believe the rebel will go through with it, besides, it’s only done in the movies and this is real life. But then he begins to saw at the head and the body is now resisting furiously; oh my god, this is really happening. Although you look away at times because your heart starts to hurt, you stay till the very end of the video. We are curious beings and need to see things to believe them. We needs answers to the questions of the length of the knife, the motion of the victim through the ordeal, the pitty or lack of it on the cutters face. These things intrigue us and determine the way we react.

Broadcaster and film makers, the same, understand that we are visuals learners. It’s one things to hear and read about violence, it’s another to see it. In every UFC fight night, someone establishes a full or side mount and hammers away at another face like an animal. In another bout, someone is being choked out of consciousness but we cheer as our favorite fighter raises his hand in victory. We acknowledge that competition comes in the form of battle and we accept this form of entertainment as a society.  Violence is viewed on television because we all relate to it and producers understand that. Violence is part of life the same way a lion will always attack a gaze. As long as violence is on television, we will watch it. Because we acknowledge the violence as a way of life and accept that it will never go away. If you can’t beat it, join it.

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