Atrocious Entertainment
“See those kids by the river/Drop some napalm/Watch them quiver/Napalm sticks to kids” ~ U.S. Army cadence
It’s a popularly accepted truth that art is an expression of culture. American culture, then, is obsessed with sadism. The movie theater has become our Colosseum, the actor our gladiator. Blood is our artistic medium of choice, the human body our canvas. God’s command to meditate on what is right, pure, and lovely has been perverted by society to an implicit command to meditate on whatever is evil, whatever is polluted, and whatever is hideous.
Sadism commands top dollar at the box office these days, according to an article in the latest issue of Newsweek. Confirming what I’ve long suspected, the article quotes horror magazine editor Tony Timpone, “In 1990, I had to pull my hair out just to find a movie to put on the cover. There were only three or four major horror releases a year. Now there’s three or four a month. We’re like pigs in slop.”
…While stateside audiences munch popcorn and revel in the sight of an eyeball being cut from a woman’s skull, as portrayed in Hostel, is it any wonder that each day reveals a new story about American troops abusing Iraqis in one way or another? True, the Abu Ghraib MPs confined themselves to techniques for producing humiliation and mental distress, bypassing outright “torture,” but their motivation was to abuse for time-killing giggles. Mistreatment became a recreational sport, a form of diversion like you might find in your friendly neighborhood theater.
Of course, the American occupation in Iraq has produced more than perverted shenanigans. Aidan Delgado, who was profiled in a New York Times article after being discharged from the Army for conscientious objection, says, “Guys in my unit, particularly the younger guys, would drive by in their Humvee and shatter bottles over the heads of Iraqi civilians passing by. They’d keep a bunch of empty Coke bottles in the Humvee to break over people’s heads.” Delgado also says he “witnessed incidents in which an Army sergeant lashed a group of children with a steel Humvee antenna, and a Marine corporal planted a vicious kick in the chest of a kid about 6 years old.” Hysterical, right? Why should American troops behave any differently when the movies tell us our culture approves of torture as entertainment?
pieterfriedrich.com
April 4th, 2006 at 11:04 am
about the author:
"I’m a Christian. My theology is of a generally Reformed Presbyterian stripe, and I confess both the Apostle’s and Nicene creeds.
I’m a strict constitutionalist and generally libertarian. I am not, however, an anarchist, and believe government is a "necessary evil." I differ from libertarianism at the point where it oversteps mere distrust of government and passes into actual hatred of the same."
* this is the kind of Christian that is at odds with the current regime of neo-cons who use Christianity as a means to an end. this is why the polarity that they are trying to push oneveryone in is dangerous, this is why ideological conformity is dangerous. religion could be a strong voice of opposition to satanic policies, this is why they have co-opted the conservative agenda and use it as a platform – illegal wars have NOTHING to do with being a social conservative. gay rights ARE not synonymous with opposition to inhumane actions.