Because You Never Asked

     America has been given another lesson in geography. It took the death of 4 middle school students and one of their teachers for the rest of us to find out where Jonesboro, Arkansas is. We now know that Jonesboro seems to be a Kiwanis-Lions Club kind of a place, inhabited by decent, God-fearing folk who raise their kids, defend the country, love mom's apple pie and root for the home team. Have we learned anything else from the senseless deaths of 4 middle school students and one of their teachers?

     At this point in the history of our nation, it doesn't surprise me that 13 and 11 year old boys have guns and are not afraid to use them. Such a scenario is generally associated with the urban lawlessness endemic to the greasy, fried chicken environments of our crack-town ghettos, where drug wars, gangs, and the spontaneous violence bred so prolifically in such socially flawed places proliferate. Jonesboro caught this writer's attention because a dysfunctional environment was not a factor. These kids had not been jaded by their daily surroundings. These are kids with moms and dads, "grandpas" and "grammas", with a white picket fence thrown in for good measure. These are just kids!

     Although guns are an integral part of any rural community --- hunting, protection on the farm, etc --- the premeditated, cold-blooded murders by barely pubic boys of their unarmed peers cannot be considered something engendered by the social mores of the local culture. The calculated consummation of such an insensitive act by an 11 year old had to be cued by something more universal, by something beyond the bounds of the provincial life style of northeastern Arkansas.

     Allow me to throw out a few names here: Steven Seagal, Clint Eastwood, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Chuck Norris, Claude Van Damm, Arnold Schwarzenneger, Bruce Lee, Crocodile Dundee (I don't know his real name), and even such respectable actors as Al Pacino, Robert DiNiro, George Cluny, in fact, just about every actor drawing a pay check today, along with the thousands of people whose work is necessary for their images to reach any size screen .

     It is certainly not an original thought to try and blame the motion picture-television industry for its excessive violence and the possible consequences of such. Whenever something like the Jonesboro massacre occurs, the way in which this industry operates becomes a focal point of debate. The problem here is the virtual impossibility of proving any causal connection between violence in the real world and that spewed forth so unmercifully by the film industry. We could immediately stop all the "designer violence" that currently infests our idea of entertainment, and the hoped for pacification of society would probably take many years (decades?) in manifesting itself. A belief in such a causal connection is almost an act of faith.

     Modern western culture is premised upon the rationality of scientific endeavor. Before it decides on any course of action it demands research, data and conclusions firmly based upon these results. "Can you prove it?" is the ultimate arbitrator of most arguments.

     The only intrusion on this practical approach to life is the pseudo-spirituality encompassed by a belief in a Supreme Being. This belief demands almost nothing in the way of commitment or sacrifice. For most people, God is less a spiritual guide and more Someone to turn to when you need help. The belief in God so ostentatiously proclaimed in places like Jonesboro, Arkansas, is a bargain basement kind of "faith" that is easily defended without rational data or serious inconvenience.

     But for those of us whose "faith" in the damaging qualities of the film industry's violence is firm, such "faith" is difficult to implement because there is something tangible that can be done. We can ask people to stop habitually entertaining themselves with such mind pollution. We can ask people to stop making money with such devices, both filmmakers and sponsors. We are asking for a commitment. We are asking people to do something real. We believe in something that can be acted upon, which makes such "faith" a more difficult thing to implement because there is a sacrifice that can be made.

     The perpetration of violence is an integral part of the evolution of life on this planet. No serious, intellectual study of the human condition can be made without taking into account this kind of behavior. If filmmaking is to be considered "art", and "art" is to be considered worthwhile, something that enriches our lives and helps us to better deal with the consequences of being alive, then the treatment of violence is a necessary component in our further enlightenment. Anyone seriously postulating themselves as an artist-scholar must, sooner or later, to some greater or lesser degree, make violence a part of their presentation. Violence cannot be ignored.

     Picasso's "Guernica" is fraught with violence, but it is meant to make us think about such behavior and its ramifications. When violence is used as a means of diversion, as a source of titillation, as a purely commercial device, we must begin to question the morality of such an action. I have enough "faith" to believe that the images put forth by the film industry do have an effect on the minds that so habitually watch them. If images seen on TV or movie screens could not affect patterns of thought, why would billions and billions of dollars be spent on advertising? This point is further corroborated when one considers that the violence seen on TV and in our cinemas has become as incessant and unrelenting as the commercials that pay for it.

     In the names of the 5 young people so tragically lost forever in Jonesboro, Arkansas, I ask that the people named above in this essay begin to be held accountable for their actions. Which brings me to . (see essay "Pro Wrestling")