word.
There is close to nothing as infallible as death. Besides taxes, death is the only constant that one can count on from a day to day basis. People dream and hope that they could say that their friends and family could at least be comparable to it in reliability, but they are human, and they will get lazy, they will forget, or stop caring. But death forgets no one. Death cares about every soul. Yet not everyone cares about death. Some people don’t fear death; some fear it to such a degree that they will put it out of their minds as much as possible. People will always think of death in which ever way that lets them sleep at night, and hope that when the time comes that they have lived life to the fullest or at least to the best of their ability.
Fear is one of the biggest motivating forces in the human condition. It can cause someone to act rashly and do something stupid, or it can cause the greatest of heroic acts. It is interesting to look at death as it is, and how it affects society. The United States can be considered one of the most death obsessed countries in the world. If one was to look at the films and records put out in the last year, it would be simple to see the trends among them all. For example, the number one grossing film in 2006 was Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, a film devoted to cheating death. Further more Frank Millers 300, another of the Top 10 grossing films of ’06, was all about the deaths of 300 Spartans in the Battle of Thermopylae (IMDb.com). If we were to look deeper into these films, 300 specifically, they show brutal battle scenes with dismemberment in all its glory, and with lines featured such as “This is where we fight! This is where they die! (IMDb.com). Again it is interesting on how death is portrayed in each of the films. In the film 300 death of the main force is characterized as a glorious thing, whereas in Pirates of the Caribbean it is something to be feared, and something that one should run from rather than towards. Additionally this interest of death is seen in the music world. With rappers focusing their lyrics so heavily on murder or drugs, most of the blame on the death-obsession in the US can be thrown onto them, yet it is not only their cross to bear. In 2006 the top grossing album was Stadium Arcadium by the Red Hot Chili Peppers with 6,653,000 world wide sales (WorldWideAlbums.tk). Featured on the album is the albums first single, Dani California, which as well was the bands second most successful single by topping many charts worldwide and as well reaching #6 on Billboards Hot 100. The subject line of the song is centered on the death of Dani, the subject of other hit Red Hot Chili Peppers songs. With film industry and the record companies mass producing media focused around death it is easy to see on why the American public is so entranced with the subject.
What has caused the American public to become so spellbound with death? 50 years ago, such violence that is even witnessed on daytime TV would have been heavily censored and looked down upon. One must look at the society that we are living in, and the events that have transpired in that time. In the last 50 years the world has gone through war after war, and many of them with the most brutal fighting that the world has seen in a long time. With the wars that have gone past, and the amount of news coverage, the American public has become desensitized. No longer do the majority of the American public raise concern at the level of violence seen in television shows, one can see almost the same amount by simply watching the 6 o’clock news. You can say that the Vietnam War and the day after day footage of wounded soldiers being shown on the news was one of the largest pushes towards the desensitization that is the American psyche. Since then, the unmentioned limit on showing violence has since been moved, and more can be shown without too much of a fear of retribution. Perhaps one of the most focused media formats that showcase death is the video game industry, and interestingly enough is garnishing the most attention lately. As the frequency of school shootings rises, many people are looking for a scapegoat, and it seems as the video game industry is gaining the largest attention. Time after time people attack the industry saying that it gives teens and others the ideas that will edge on violent acts. Specifically games such as the Grand Theft Auto series which glorify stealing cars and killing police and prostitutes, have been attacked viciously for their content matter. Due to the fire that the industry was taking the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) was created 11 years ago, with its job being bring about ratings with a process that the president of the ESRB, Patricia Vance describes that involves “only to mall-based research to determine what parents think about our ratings and whether they agree with them or not. What we find is that they consistently agree with our ratings across all of our rating categories, whether that's "T" (for Teen; 13 and older), "M" (for Mature; 17 and older; "may contain mature sexual themes, more intense violence, and/or strong language"), or "AO" (for Adults Only; 18 and up; "may include graphic depictions of sex and/or violence")’ (HollywoodReporter.com). The death that is sold is now acceptable in the homes. It is now no longer a real government censorship of material, regardless of the cries that arise from many Senators and Congressmen scrambling for re-election, but is back in the hands of the only people that can make the decisions, the consumers. No matter how brutal, no matter how seemingly inappropriate, death sells. Not only that, but it reaps in billions, and it always will.
Quotes of important people are always reproduced, and many times changed to meet the point that the person is trying to make. Karl Marx is one of the largest examples of that. It is not uncommon to hear, “religion is the opiate of the masses” attributed to Marx. Yet the real quote is quite different, it actually is as follows, “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people.” In a world so downtrodden by the need to succeed, the drive to excel, religion plays a large part for many in softening the crushing feeling of the inevitability of death. Especially in a society that is so obsessed with the idea of death, it is also afraid of it. Everywhere are miracle ways to look younger, diets and supplements to make you live longer. Religion can be seen as just another way to accept the inevitable, even more so as one of the more logical products to subscribe to. Religion has no real side affect, it gives most people a clear idea of what to work towards, a coping tool. It can help when a loved one dies, or when death is close to you. According to a 2005 poll, 84% of all people consider themselves to be religious in one sense or the other, with 16% saying that they are not religious at all. Not only does death sell, but it scares as well. Again, nothing will jolt someone more to the core than the fear of death. Religion is one way to cope with that fear, an escape. But it will always come, no matter what. Ultimately the famed existentialist Albert Camus puts it best, “There is but one freedom, to put oneself right with death. After that everything is possible. I cannot force you to believe in God. Believing in God amounts to coming to terms with death. When you have accepted death, the problem of God will be solved--and not the reverse.”
Death scares, death sells, death lives on. It is one of the largest questions that plague human kind, what happens after it? It will make men do the more heroic of things, and again the stupidest. It will forever drive the human race, towards greatness and failure, towards the great beyond. All in all, like the meaning of life, death holds some of the greatest questions that the world will ever know, and one must only remember to live, in order to die with any amount of peace. Jean-Paul Sartre eloquently puts death in this frame of mind, “One is still what one is going to cease to be and already what one is going to become. One lives one's death, one dies one's life.”
yea.
Fear is one of the biggest motivating forces in the human condition. It can cause someone to act rashly and do something stupid, or it can cause the greatest of heroic acts. It is interesting to look at death as it is, and how it affects society. The United States can be considered one of the most death obsessed countries in the world. If one was to look at the films and records put out in the last year, it would be simple to see the trends among them all. For example, the number one grossing film in 2006 was Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, a film devoted to cheating death. Further more Frank Millers 300, another of the Top 10 grossing films of ’06, was all about the deaths of 300 Spartans in the Battle of Thermopylae (IMDb.com). If we were to look deeper into these films, 300 specifically, they show brutal battle scenes with dismemberment in all its glory, and with lines featured such as “This is where we fight! This is where they die! (IMDb.com). Again it is interesting on how death is portrayed in each of the films. In the film 300 death of the main force is characterized as a glorious thing, whereas in Pirates of the Caribbean it is something to be feared, and something that one should run from rather than towards. Additionally this interest of death is seen in the music world. With rappers focusing their lyrics so heavily on murder or drugs, most of the blame on the death-obsession in the US can be thrown onto them, yet it is not only their cross to bear. In 2006 the top grossing album was Stadium Arcadium by the Red Hot Chili Peppers with 6,653,000 world wide sales (WorldWideAlbums.tk). Featured on the album is the albums first single, Dani California, which as well was the bands second most successful single by topping many charts worldwide and as well reaching #6 on Billboards Hot 100. The subject line of the song is centered on the death of Dani, the subject of other hit Red Hot Chili Peppers songs. With film industry and the record companies mass producing media focused around death it is easy to see on why the American public is so entranced with the subject.
What has caused the American public to become so spellbound with death? 50 years ago, such violence that is even witnessed on daytime TV would have been heavily censored and looked down upon. One must look at the society that we are living in, and the events that have transpired in that time. In the last 50 years the world has gone through war after war, and many of them with the most brutal fighting that the world has seen in a long time. With the wars that have gone past, and the amount of news coverage, the American public has become desensitized. No longer do the majority of the American public raise concern at the level of violence seen in television shows, one can see almost the same amount by simply watching the 6 o’clock news. You can say that the Vietnam War and the day after day footage of wounded soldiers being shown on the news was one of the largest pushes towards the desensitization that is the American psyche. Since then, the unmentioned limit on showing violence has since been moved, and more can be shown without too much of a fear of retribution. Perhaps one of the most focused media formats that showcase death is the video game industry, and interestingly enough is garnishing the most attention lately. As the frequency of school shootings rises, many people are looking for a scapegoat, and it seems as the video game industry is gaining the largest attention. Time after time people attack the industry saying that it gives teens and others the ideas that will edge on violent acts. Specifically games such as the Grand Theft Auto series which glorify stealing cars and killing police and prostitutes, have been attacked viciously for their content matter. Due to the fire that the industry was taking the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) was created 11 years ago, with its job being bring about ratings with a process that the president of the ESRB, Patricia Vance describes that involves “only to mall-based research to determine what parents think about our ratings and whether they agree with them or not. What we find is that they consistently agree with our ratings across all of our rating categories, whether that's "T" (for Teen; 13 and older), "M" (for Mature; 17 and older; "may contain mature sexual themes, more intense violence, and/or strong language"), or "AO" (for Adults Only; 18 and up; "may include graphic depictions of sex and/or violence")’ (HollywoodReporter.com). The death that is sold is now acceptable in the homes. It is now no longer a real government censorship of material, regardless of the cries that arise from many Senators and Congressmen scrambling for re-election, but is back in the hands of the only people that can make the decisions, the consumers. No matter how brutal, no matter how seemingly inappropriate, death sells. Not only that, but it reaps in billions, and it always will.
Quotes of important people are always reproduced, and many times changed to meet the point that the person is trying to make. Karl Marx is one of the largest examples of that. It is not uncommon to hear, “religion is the opiate of the masses” attributed to Marx. Yet the real quote is quite different, it actually is as follows, “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people.” In a world so downtrodden by the need to succeed, the drive to excel, religion plays a large part for many in softening the crushing feeling of the inevitability of death. Especially in a society that is so obsessed with the idea of death, it is also afraid of it. Everywhere are miracle ways to look younger, diets and supplements to make you live longer. Religion can be seen as just another way to accept the inevitable, even more so as one of the more logical products to subscribe to. Religion has no real side affect, it gives most people a clear idea of what to work towards, a coping tool. It can help when a loved one dies, or when death is close to you. According to a 2005 poll, 84% of all people consider themselves to be religious in one sense or the other, with 16% saying that they are not religious at all. Not only does death sell, but it scares as well. Again, nothing will jolt someone more to the core than the fear of death. Religion is one way to cope with that fear, an escape. But it will always come, no matter what. Ultimately the famed existentialist Albert Camus puts it best, “There is but one freedom, to put oneself right with death. After that everything is possible. I cannot force you to believe in God. Believing in God amounts to coming to terms with death. When you have accepted death, the problem of God will be solved--and not the reverse.”
Death scares, death sells, death lives on. It is one of the largest questions that plague human kind, what happens after it? It will make men do the more heroic of things, and again the stupidest. It will forever drive the human race, towards greatness and failure, towards the great beyond. All in all, like the meaning of life, death holds some of the greatest questions that the world will ever know, and one must only remember to live, in order to die with any amount of peace. Jean-Paul Sartre eloquently puts death in this frame of mind, “One is still what one is going to cease to be and already what one is going to become. One lives one's death, one dies one's life.”
yea.