Do We Need Violence to Entertain Us?

I’ve noticed that this platform has no shortage of violent content. It’s obviously a popular item in steem culture and I’m not here to judge anyone for enjoying violence as a form of entertainment. I figure that if a violent movie or TV show caused viewers to commit violent acts, nowhere in the modern world would be safe. Fact is, that real physical violence would be a constant occurrence in societies where it’s fed to us in the form of Bugs Bunny and Road Runner cartoons before we even learn how to speak.
Fortunately for anyone in the US, there is not a direct correlation between violence in entertainment and violence in our local neighborhood. Fortunate because most people REALLY don’t want violence in their physical realities. When it’s for real - violence really, really sucks.

So why is something that we really don’t want as a part of our lives, something we crave as ‘entertainment’? Why do we consume artificial images of our worst nightmares like zombies in a feeding frenzy?
I’ve already touched on what I believe to be the true cause for modern society’s voracious appetite when I mentioned Bugs Bunny. We are taught to enjoy violence as entertainment before we're even toddlers. By the time we’ve consumed it for eighteen years, we associate it with excitement…fun…even enjoyment.

Maybe I am unusual in that I stopped exposing myself to violence as a form of entertainment quite some time ago, meaning a lot of years, a whole lot of years in fact. So, I just kind of lost my taste for it. I lost my capacity to watch violence committed to another living, feeling being and walking away unscathed. It gets in under my skin and can haunt me with its images for weeks or for years or sometimes forever.
So, I tend to think that with out the constant conditioning, empathy would override the instinctual bloodlust that lies behind a blind craving to see violence perpetrated against someone or something even if it’s make-believe.

Like I said, I’m not judging anyone for watching fictional violence, but what I do wonder is why is this the content we are so constantly offered? Why are those creating this unending variety of every conceivable evil and violent act, so interested in doing so? You can say it’s because that’s what sells at the box office, but what about bugs bunny? Is a toddler only going to watch if Daffy Duck ends up with his bill on the back of his head?
I can think of a couple reasons for an industry to consistently creates such violent images. One possibility is simply that many of those in the entertainment industry enjoy violence themselves. Another possibility is that there is an agenda behind the constant barrage of death and destruction that’s voluntarily consumed in mass quantity. I’d consider either of these two possibilities really frightening, but I’ve already admitted I have a low tolerance.

What do you think the reason might be? I’d love to hear your comments and thanks so much for reading.

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