The irony of modern violence

In Friday's Deseret News, Chris Hicks writes about how this year's blockbuster comic book movies have ratcheted up the violence and gore (link). He writes that most of it is "treated lightly, frivolously and, in some cases, simply ignored."

I don't think anyone would contest that violence in media is more prevalent today than it was 40, 50 or 60 years ago. The Dark Knight, Wanted and Iron Man are just the tip of the iceberg. Video games take violence to another level altogether.

By almost all measures, violence is wildly popular these days. Of the top ten video games sold for consoles in the US in 2007, fewer than one quarter of the units sold featured no violence (Guitar Hero II & III, and Madden NFL 08 - although one could argue that football is a violent sport). Another 40% of these games featured "mild cartoon violence" (Pokemon, Wii Play and Mario) and the remaining 36% of games featured "blood and gore" and "intense violence" (Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, and Assassin's Creed). (link)

And violence was also a big hit for the top ten grossing films for 2007 in the US (link). Using the Kids-In-Mind rating service, those films scored a total of 52 of an available 100 points in the violence category, and only 25 in profanity and 26 in sex and nudity. Apparently Americans are twice as comfortable with violence and gore as they are with either profanity or sex and nudity.

The great irony that I see is how uncomfortable Americans seem to be with real violence and death. According to iCasulties, there have been 4,124 confirmed deaths of US soldiers in Iraq, and this statistic is usually among the first cited when criticizing that war. Our sensitivity to violence and death has heightened considerably from the days of the Civil War, for example, when over 618,000 Americans lost their lives, or more recently in World War II, when over 290,000 US servicemembers perished.

The US military has performed weapons training with human silhouettes for decades now, because the likenesses have proven highly effective at sensitizing soldiers to firing upon human targets. Studies on video games have proven to have similar effects, but from the sounds of the political discourse in the country, Americans, despite the rampant violence in media, yet have weak stomachs when it comes to the real thing.

There is an obvious double standard here: on the one hand we glorify fictitious and meaningless violence, and on the other hand we have a hard time even accepting honorable and meaningful violence.

Mr. Hicks continues, "With all the real-life violence brought home to us via TV and the Internet these days, I'm having second thoughts about destruction as entertainment."

I have to agree that a culture of violence and death as entertainment is definitely something worth reconsidering.

Weather report

I'm watching the sun go down from my hotel room and it is an absolutely gorgeous sky tonight. Great big clouds from the Arizona monsoons, illuminated in tones of pink, orange, and purple, lined by gray and fringed with white - punctuated by a few patches of dusky blue sky. The most skilled artist can't touch this sky.

Very dark clouds loom on the horizon. This masterpiece won't last but a moment.

And he shall send his angels...

"And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." - Matthew 24:31

I'm going to grant myself a rare religious indulgence today. This past week my wife and kids had the remarkable privilege of watching as the signature ornament of LDS temples, and the prevailing symbol of the LDS faith as a whole - the statue of the Angel Moroni - was lifted to the top of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple currently under construction in our soon-to-be neighborhood in South Jordan.

I remember hearing President Hinckley years ago refer to the temple as "a monument to our belief in the immortality of the human soul." Without a doubt, the work performed inside of these "monuments" revolves around the eternal and immortal, and witnesses to our belief that "as certain as there is life here, there will be life there." (Source)

Reminders of mortality are omnipresent: the propaganda of the ephemeral. It is wonderful to see that image of a heavenly angel raise his trumpet into the air to stir in ourselves the remembrance of our own immortality and greater purpose.

"Have miracles ceased? Behold I say unto you, Nay; neither have angels ceased to minister unto the children of men." - Moroni 7:29

Video: KSL, KUTV

We're #1!

I'm going to drink the Kool-Aid tonight, and ignore all of the games that we have left to play, and everything else that RSL cannot control, and focus on the positive. In 2008 the team has played with heart, energy and desire and they deserve to be at the top of the Western Conference! As Mr. Kool-Aid would say:

Oh yeah!












GO RSL!