- "I came up with a new game-show idea recently. It's
called The Old Game. You got three old guys with loaded guns onstage. They
look back at their lives, see who they were, what they accomplished, how
close they came to realizing their dreams. The winner is the one who doesn't
blow his brains out. He gets a refrigerator."
-
- --Chuck Barris, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
-
- "When the Games first started, people said they
were the world's greatest entertainment because there had never been anything
like them. But nothing's that original. There were the gladiators in Rome
who did the same thing."
-
- --Ben Richards, running for his life on the game-show
The Running Man (from Stephen King's The Running Man.)
-
-
- A man is driving in his car, and stops at a red light.
He gazes out his window and sees two people standing on a sidewalk. One
is a beautiful, shapely woman in a low-cut dress. The other is a wino,
bent over and puking his guts out. Which figure do you think garners the
man's full attention? If you answered the woman, you need to take a class
in basic human psychology.
-
- It has been said that no one can look away from a train
wreck. Even genuinely nice and empathetic people will find their attention
held rapt by the sight of human catastrophe. It's not that most of us would
derive enjoyment from seeing a bunch of innocent people annihilated. It's
just that nothing is more inherently dramatic than death, destruction,
and suffering in extremis.
-
- There are two types of people who are compelled by the
drama of human tragedy. One is a normal person who can't turn away from
his brother's pain because he feels it as his own. The other is a sadist
who takes grim and perverse pleasure in the suffering of others. The latter
type actively wishes misfortune on his fellow man, largely because it makes
him feel better about himself.
-
- The US media fully understand this dark aspect of the
human psyche. They know that our country consists of tens of millions of
consumers who are willing to spend their hard-earned cash to be "entertained."
And in 21st century America, the cheapest and most scintillating form of
"entertainment" is human ruination.
-
- For many years, debate has raged over the influence of
media violence on mental health. Numerous controlled studies have indicated
that the human brain is negatively affected when it witnesses acts of violence,
real or simulated. But the TV, movie, music, and video game industries
have veiled themselves in the 1st amendment, claiming that any restraints
on their creativity is akin to censorship. And besides, they argue, they
are marketing fantasy, not real life.
-
- But an incredibly disturbing trend has emerged in the
US media over the last several years. No longer is violence in the media
entirely FICTIONAL. Never again can anyone claim that the bloodshed and
carnage marketed to young people is harmless, just because it's "make-believe."
Real human beings are being hurt as a form of entertainment, and the producers
of this filth are making money hand over first.
-
- As a citizen of the United States who was weaned on masked-killer
horror flicks and video game carnage, I thought I had reached the limit
of my capacity for abashment. In recent years, I've witnessed the proliferation
of reality TV shows that traumatize, wound, and endanger (often non-consenting)
human beings. I've seen people gorge on worms and walk on hot coals for
a shot at a little fame and a little money. I've watched these grotesque
displays of cruelty and self-abasement, and asked myself, "What is
LEFT? Short of people actually DYING, how could anything still shock anyone?"
-
- A few nights ago, I was watching a basic cable network
late at night, and saw an ad for a video called "Street Racers --
Outlaws Unleashed!" Since the network I was watching was Comedy Central,
I thought for a moment that the "ad" might be a bit for a comedy
show. But it was not; it was all too real. "Street Racers" features
actual footage of illegal car racing on city streets. It also features
unbelievably violent crashes and wipe outs, with big-chested girls wrapping
themselves around the "victorious" drivers. None of the races
are conducted on closed courses.
-
- Here is how the ad reads:
-
- "The cops don't want you see to see this video!
Fast cars, bone-shattering accidents, and HOT CHICKS! Street Racers presents
Outlaws Unleashed! Penetrate the underground racing where extreme speed
and pure adrenaline leave you...BREATHLESS! This is not a closed course!
This is not a movie! This is the real thing! Watch modern day outlaws outrun
the cops...AND WIN! Order Outlaws Unleashed for only $9.99..."
-
- It is an interesting synchronicity that on the same night
I saw this ad, I noticed the following story on the website of KATU News
(the ABC affiliate in my hometown of Portland, OR.):
-
- November 7, 2004
-
- Pregnant Woman Injured by Street Racers Over the Weekend
-
- A pregnant woman is recovering after getting caught up
in a street racing accident.
-
- Police say a Honda Civic and another car were racing
up to 100 m.p.h. north on Greeley avenue when they got tangled in traffic.
-
- In an effort to avoid hitting a pickup truck, the Honda
slammed into another car with a pregnant woman inside.
-
- She was taken to the hospital for observation.
-
- The driver of the Honda was arrested on charges of assault,
reckless endangerment and speed racing.
-
- The other driver who was racing took off and police do
not have a strong description of that vehicle. (Artice link: http://www.katu.com/news/story.asp?ID=72416)
-
- I wonder, had the "street racers" in this case
seen the Outlaws Unleashed video? Does it even MATTER?
-
- I suspect that if one were to ask the producers of Outlaws
Unleashed how they can sleep at night, they would give a pat and well-rehearsed
response: they are not responsible for the actions of the drivers, it is
only entertainment, they provide a disclaimer, adults can watch that kind
of thing and not be influenced by it, and so forth, and so on. But only
a brain-dead and/or dishonest apologist would deny the effect that this
type of "entertainment" is having on our culture.
-
- Outlaws Unleashed will enhance the popularity of an illegal
and often DEADLY activity. Directly or indirectly, people are going to
DIE as a result of this video. Do you think the fine folks marketing this
horseshit are bothered at all by this?
-
- As a free speech absolutist, I honestly don't know if
"entertainment" like "Outlaws Unleashed" should be
legal in the United States. But I do know that I am within my own first
amendment rights when I call these bastards out for what they are -- cold-blooded
sociopaths.
-
- US citizens need to understand that taking pleasure in
the suffering of others is a form of MENTAL ILLNESS called SADISM. It is
not possible to be happy or healthy without a sense of empathy for one's
fellow man. The next time you sit in front of the TV and guffaw at the
sight of your brothers and sisters being hurt and humiliated, remember
the words of French actor Antonin Artaud: "Theater of cruelty means
a theater difficult and cruel for myself first of all."
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