Morality & Violence in Modern Movies

Tea, I think it is safe to say that there is no objective line. Surely this discussion is as subjective as it can be. Everyone's taste in humor is different. Humor trends across vast segments of society are perhaps more debatable. The masses thought it was uproariously funny to watch slaves torn apart by lions in Roman circuses.

At least our humor is still in the realm of fiction. Or is it. I understand from secondary sources (so I could have this wrong) that there are some reality shows along the lines of 'World's toughest fighters' where men enter into a cage and it is no holds barred survival of the fittest. No body protection of any kind. About the only rule is one cannot kill your opponent.

People seem to flock to this kind of nonsense and think it is just so hilarious. Again since I am speaking from second hand experience I do not know how much is staged. My understanding is that none of it is staged. But I could be wrong.

If not wrong, that is getting mighty close to Bread & Circuses for entertainment's sake!
 
I think we are narrowing things down because I think we have left the realm of humor, and arrived where it's a simply a by product of entertainment. I have very little experience or insight into when actual violence becomes acceptable and even enjoyable. Real violence is, to me, very different from simulated violence.
 
Devils' Advocate said:
And what does that say about us?
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We had a news report this weekend of someone standing on the roof of a multi-storey carpark being urged to jump by onlookers below who were hoping to film him on their mobiles.

When my partner had a car crash, a crowd gathered to film the after-event, even people running indoors to bring out tablets, etc. They just stood there, filming ... On another occasion a friend of ours remonstrated with members of the public who were trying to get close enough 'to get a good shot' of the remains of someone who went under a train at the local station...

People like to be entertained. Sadly, they like that more than they like to think.
 
Thomas said:
We had a news report this weekend of someone standing on the roof of a multi-storey carpark being urged to jump by onlookers below who were hoping to film him on their mobiles.

When my partner had a car crash, a crowd gathered to film the after-event, even people running indoors to bring out tablets, etc. They just stood there, filming ... On another occasion a friend of ours remonstrated with members of the public who were trying to get close enough 'to get a good shot' of the remains of someone who went under a train at the local station...

People like to be entertained. Sadly, they like that more than they like to think.
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Excellent opportunity to apply the Golden Rule, IMO.

Pause a moment to reflect if you were in the situation of the person you are turning, or trying to turn, into a spectacle would you want to be turned into one yourself?

If your heart's honest answer is yes then snap away to obtain all that fodder you need to boost your social media reputation.

I wouldn't want it to happen to me and therefore will not contribute to it happening to anyone else.

I've lived long enought to remember a time when very few people would have ever even considered doing something like this in the first place. Now it seems the majority regard gawking at others grief and tragedy and turning it into a public spectacle as an inalienable right they should be constitutionally guaranteed.
 
Again, the people here are pointing to a undefined time and place where people were not assholes. I can point to a time when hangings, beheadings, burning and good old whippings drew the community for its entertainment value. I suggest that we look at the nature of man instead of blaming our actions on some modern construct....like we have done for thousands of years...
 
A Cup Of Tea said:
Again, the people here are pointing to a undefined time and place where people were not assholes.
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OK. But I can point at a time not so long ago ... a decade? Two? The police comment on the event was astonishment, as this kind of thing was previously unknown. I'm not saying you never get anyone who will watch in the hope, but now it is becoming a collective social action, enabled by technology.

A Cup Of Tea said:
I can point to a time when hangings, beheadings, burning and good old whippings drew the community for its entertainment value. I suggest that we look at the nature of man instead of blaming our actions on some modern construct....like we have done for thousands of years...
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The point I would make is that 'in those days' no-one saw any wrong in turning up to witness an execution. It still strikes me as bizarre that people rode the Underground in London to witness the last public hanging.

But pull out anyone today and they would express shock when confronted by their own behaviour.

As I intimated above, when technology enables, people are led by the nose ...
 
OR, peoples morbid curiosities was socially acceptable at one point but it isn't today. We are saying to ourselves that we are above such things, but I'm saying that is only a thin veneer. I didn't follow exactly what you were saying, but the astonishment and shock you were mentioning isn't surprising to me since accepting those dark sides of our neighbours and our selves is socially unacceptable. I'm coming from a psychological perspective and it has proved many times how easily the individual surrender to authority and the mob. At the same time, it's impossible to establish objective morality from that perspective. Quit blaming technology, everything we do is our own damn fault.
 
A Cup Of Tea said:
We are saying to ourselves that we are above such things, but I'm saying that is only a thin veneer...
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Agreed.

A Cup Of Tea said:
Quit blaming technology, everything we do is our own damn fault.
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Oh I'm not blaming the tech. I'm blaming the attitude that says we can, because we can. Not enough debate on whether we should.
 
It is a Seinfeld episode where the gang is filming and commenting on a guy getting robbed....and they get arrested for not doing anything under the 'good samaritan law'
 
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