EPT------------------------------
I have meditated and written often in the past on sex, so really this writing will be about its sidekick, our good friend violence.
I have been contemplating violence quite a bit lately, watching a bunch of violent films and reading graphic literature. Finally tonight I realized it and asked myself "Why?"
So I thought about it. Violence is so prevalent in our society, in both reality and fiction, that we take is with a grain of salt, even entertaining. Our movie theaters and televisions today are our new version of the ancient arenas and coliseums of yore. The only difference is that we are (usually) not actually harming anyone or thing.
Is this a good idea?
That may seem like a strange question, but a valid one I think, something worth asking. Why, you might ask?
The more and more that we remove humanity from acts of rape, murder, torture, and war, the more we condone and accept it as just life and entertainment. Should we be entertained by human suffering? I am entertained by some shows and some violent acts, but that is because no one actually gets hurt and usually because the violence is understated. It exists for a purpose, to force us to feel a certain emotion. This is one of the reasons that I hate a lot of big Hollywood films: too glorified. They use violence nowadays instead of dialogue or character. It is weak...
Anyway, the more and more that we remove humanity from our inhumanities toward other men, the more accepting and desensitized to it we become. I mean, do not get me wrong, I am a full believer in the first amendment and our right to say what we want to say, and show what we want to show without censorship. I am not claiming that we need to censor any of this. I am just asking, what is it for and is it a positive thing?
Artists are people who try to communicate, try to reach out to themselves or others, reach for human connection through some form of media. They tend to do these things to express an emotion or force their audience to feel a certain emotion. In doing so, they are usually attempting to heal this world in some way, to force us to see something in the big or small picture about us all. To sum it up, I see artists as asking us to evolve somehow.
Some people use the nature argument for violence, and that is an argument that you cannot win. Yes it is natural to have violence, human on human or human on nature, or whatever. Yes it exists in the wild and has existed for as long as we know, we cannot really argue that fact, so don't even try. But...what we can argue is this question: Does that mean we have to perpetuate violence? Does that give us just cause? These same people that tend to use the nature argument, tend to do very unnatural things. Watching tv and movies is not natural, so does that mean we need to do away with it? Having one life mate is VERY unnatural, so why do we do it? Poly-amorous lifestyles are very natural, but frowned upon, and often by the same people who argue that natural violence is okay.
The point being that we are humans. We are evolved, even though if you watch reality tv and you would think that we are still apes. With rights and great power comes great responsibility (Thank you Spider-man!) I know it might seem antiquated, but I still believe that. This means that I feel that we have a responsibility to one another. We are all connected on this orb we call Earth and helping each other through this thing...well, I will stop there and cease being preachy or trying to place my own beliefs out there. The point is that, well John Donne said it best when he said that no man is an island.
So I decided to watch a movie that seems to sum up human violence better than anything I know of, Julie Taymor's version of "Titus" by William Shakespeare.
This film studies violence, man's inhumanity toward man. It really shows the brilliance of Shakespeare as well as if not better than any of his plays. It covers every type of violence, almost all possible motivations, and forces us to ask certain questions:
What is Justice?
What is Revenge?
and
What are justifications of War?
Type of violence and motivations:
Personal revenge, avengement, sibling rivalry, cold blooded crimes of passion, premeditated murder, war, torture, self-sacrifice, sex, sense of duty, religous piety, ritual, rape, lust, racism, love, hatred, pride, use of all sorts of weapons, killing one with your own hands, guilt, appealing, and one of the most real: Becuase we feel there is no other choice.
The two sons of Tamara rape Titus's beauitful daughter Lavinia, a symbol of love and purity, then cut out her tongue and chop off her hands so she can tell no one who did this. Then they made her live. It tortures her to know whom is guilty, but she cannot do anything about it. It also tortures her because they destroyed her alter that she lived by, her purity. How horrible!
Titus willingly gives up his own hand, cuts it off for the belief that by doing so, two of his son's lives would be spared. He would have gladly give his life for his sons if they asked for it, but they didn't. They wanted to torture him as well. Only then to not give him his sons back, but only their heads along with his hand sent back to him! This all happens after Titus has one of his tragic moments where he chooses his loyalty to a bad Emperor whom he put into power by murdering one of his own sons. Wow.
Lavinia submits herself to death by her father, who both felt it was just to do so! What will they had?!
Titus kills the two sons that raped his daughter, cooks them into mince meat pies, and feed them to their mother and step-father!! My god!
These are just a few of the most grevious acts of violence in the play/film. It makes me think, these acts of violence are rather over the top, not normal, but they are not unheard of in life. Mercy killings for purity (Chastity) by loving family members are still practiced in some parts of the world. People still sacrifice themselves for ideals and rituals. It still happens.
What does it take? Why do we submit ourselves to certain things? How much will does it actually take for someone to wrap their hands, skin to skin, around a loving family member's warm neck and strangle or break it? I cannot even begin to imagine. To know that some people can perform that act is a scary thought. To think that we as humans have the ability to feel such feelings, do such things, and some of us can do it so sociopathically, so disconnected, that we can do them without even raising our heartrates.
Maybe, to sum that thought up, that is why we created the idea of the devil and of demons. By dehumanizing those people, we can sleep a little better at night...
I do not think that is a justified answer...but it is the only one I got for now.
