Design Response
Argumentitive Essay
Our Fascination With Violence
ASPECT 02:
Violence is merely mutating instead of disappearing. The tradition of violent entertainment pushes humans to find new outlets for this primitive urge.
Different schools of thinkers all made hypotheses about the cause of the decline of real-life violence. Some considered genetics and evolution to be one of the factors, which suggested that the instinct for violence has evolved out of us as time progresses. However, this particular school of thinking may undermine the popularity of mediated violence. If we are genetically less aggressive than we used to then be, one could not tolerate the many forms of violent entertainment. One couldn’t help but also question whether our current views on violence are a matter of nature or nurture. We have undeniably curbed some of our instinctive tendencies towards brutalities; however, violence is merely mutating rather than disappearing. I argue that it is how we experience, perceive, assess, and distribute violence that has defined this shift.
Looking back to the history of entertainment, violence has always been a quintessential theme for our leisure pastimes. Hunting has transformed itself from a necessity to a way of leisure. Traces also could be found all the way back to the Egyptians. The Egyptians have the tradition to reenact the god Osiris’s murder as entertainment during Osiris’s festivals. The Romans had the gladiators, while African countries’ royalties still have the tradition of watching executions as a special event. Violence has always been one of the best selling points of literature and films; fictionalized violence is a significant component in popular culture. We have also invented competitive sporting events revolving around the theme of hurting each other. It is a fact that our fascination with violence has gone beyond just tradition; it has become ingrained in our culture. Violence mutated itself into a universal language, breaking the barriers of culture.