I find the glorification of death in movies and mass media disturbing, and extremely questionable. Life has become cheap, and one has to ask "Why?". In the military, soldiers have to be conditioned to take lives. Are we, as the public, being conditioned by the media to treat the loss of life in a nonchalant manner, and if so, why? Governments need public support to go to war - media therefore is a tool, being used to soften the public in order for them to support govts. military agendas. Something for us to ponder, deeply. As a human society with so called "values", are we any better in the 21st Century than hordes of savages in centuries past, or do we delude ourselves in giving power to men in suits to do violence to an unknown human enemy?
Death is the new Elvis
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2 months before I was born, this was posted
What is the meaning behind this topic? Well recently I've noticed how todays media treats death. I'm not talking about news about people dying in Iraq or carbombs blowing up around us. That's treated, as it shoud be, very seriously. But I want to point my finger at todays entertainment. Movies, TV, music, books, games... you can see violence in all of them. I'm not saying that's bad. It's still entertaining to watch Arnold dualwield two railguns. But I do want to point out how these things treat death. It's just another tool for the industry. Want to add some action? Just kill bunch of unimportant characters who don't even have a name.
Don't get me wrong! I'm not against brainless violence. Heck I even like it. But I still can't totally ignore the role it gives to Death. The Reaper has thrown away his old robes and put on a clown costume for his big dance show. And I'm there, watching him go. I might even throw a lollipop for him after the show.
What people don't see, is that at some level, death has become a joke to us. Who cares that the Evil Genius killed half of his own army. They didn't mean a thing anyway. It's just entertainment. At some point, I believe this entertainment has made us forget the meaning of our life. Maybe that's a little extreme, but I think it has affected our view of death. I think death has lost some of it's seriousness. And because of that, our need to truly live has lessened.
There is a great topic about happiness and life in here. Here's the link http://www.chess.com/forum/view/off-topic/life-is-short2
What I want to point out is that we should all stop taking life for granted and actually start living. Death is there waiting for us. In his robes or clown costume, it doesn't matter.