re: #290 A Mom Anon

I’ll give you some of that DF, and there are some stories that have a violent turn to them (wars, history, personal traumas, etc) and should be told. But s let’s face it, is the Saw franchise of movies(as one example) truly something we need to consume without a second thought?

I’d like to live in a society that didn’t value guns and violence more than it’s children. Just because the stuff is out there to consume doesn’t mean we have to. And perhaps it’s close to the time where we need to re-evaluate what it means to be a man, what’s “manly”, what being tough REALLY means. If we’re smart enough to build a first world country full of advances, we’re smart enough to figure out better ways to entertain ourselves and occupy our time.

That reevaluation literally can’t happen right now, frankly because of the Culture Wars. of which the reaction to the Newtown killings (though not the killings themselves) form yet another engagement. America as a whole cannot have such a discussion because America can’t collectively agree on the first principals needed for such a discussion. Nor is such agreement likely anytime soon, given the level of distrust that underlines thedifferences.