Column: Something About Nothing

Normally I am not a violent person. I have been known at times to yell and scream and occasionally want to take a hammer to a computer but normally I stray away from violence. I have a hard time watching sad animal movies. John Wayne’s character died in two movies “The Shootist” and “The Cowboys.” I could not see those movies. I could not watch the good guy who always saves the day die in a movie.

It may then surprise those who know me that I recently watched the movie “RED” starring Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren and John Malkovich. I knew the synopsis of the movie: Retired government assassins targeted by the CIA because they know too much. I was prepared for violence.

It might seem strange that I would go to a violent movie knowingly. I was surprised myself but I was told it was funny, and I like Morgan Freeman and Helen Mirren. I asked myself: How violent can a PG-13 movie be? I am now wondering about the rating system. The reviews for this movie were very good and people’s comments were: Funny, exciting and fun movie.

The movie was violent. There was murder, assassinations, explosions, intrigue and some bad language.

The first few minutes I was questioning my sanity in attending this movie. And then I started laughing and rooting for the good guys. Good guys? These good guys were very good at violence and assassination, too. The people I was with were rolling in the aisles with me. Pretty soon I got used to the violence and the movie seemed surreal. As the movie progressed the murder didn’t bother me in fact we were all laughing at times when someone died.

Later in the weekend I watched a couple of my favorite shows that I had recorded. One was “BlueBloods” with Tom Selleck. The other was the new “Hawaii Five-0.” These too were graphically violent, but I found myself not as bothered by any of the violence.

Later I had a conversation with a friend who had attended “RED.” She too had conflicting feelings about the movie. As I pondered all the violence I had watched over the weekend I started to ask myself questions. How sick is it that I was laughing when someone in a movie got blown away? What happened to my aversion to violence that the more I watched the less it bothers me?

Recently when I have had conversations with younger adults about the shootings in bigger communities and armed robberies that are now taking place in smaller communities I have been shocked at their answers. The answers were “It is happening all over. We can’t worry about it. No place is safe anymore. You just have to be careful.” They do not say this with alarm or fear but with acceptance. This is now their world.

I wondered what would happen to my thinking if after watching these violent movies, I continued on to my home and played violent video games for hours on end? Would these experiences make me into a more violent person where I would confuse the violence in movies and video games with reality?

At my age I would think that I have lived long enough to not let the violence influence me but I was the one laughing at the violence on the screen. I can tell the difference between fantasy and reality but I have to wonder if these factors influence our culture.

I tried to think back to the “olden days” when I grew up. I probably led a sheltered life, but I and most of my friends were not allowed to go to “B” movies as they were called back then. These were movies were not acceptable for children or my religion. That didn’t mean I didn’t want to see them. That means I did not get to go to them. What child or teenager doesn’t want to see the forbidden?

I now have seen some of these movies and they are very mild compared to today’s movies. In today’s world they probably would be rated G.

Television was also censored. Using bad language was not allowed. Some people raged against the censorship because of the freedoms we were supposed to have.

After my choices of programming this weekend I wondered whether removal of all the censorship was a good thing for our society, our children and our teenagers.

It strikes me as strange that we have the freedoms now without much censorship. We have the freedom at our movies, on video games, on television and on the Internet to broadcast all of which was censored so many years ago, yet we can go very few places without being watched on camera even at church. We have to be patted down and scanned to board our airplanes. We can be tracked by our phones, our computers and our vehicles.

Years ago censorship of media seemed like an infringement on our freedom, but today we accept someone watching our movements of our day-to-day activities in the name of safety. It seems strange to me. Our movements are watched, but what happens in our media is one free for all.

I do enjoy watching some of these shows. They do have good story. Would the story be as good if the violence was left out or more tame? Would we still watch these movies and these shows?

I don’t know how much the media influences the violence in our society. Those were my thoughts pondering my viewing choices over the weekend. I do have the choice to turn off the violent shows that I have been watching. Parents have the choice to restrict what their children and teenagers watch at the movies and on television. Parents have the choice to choose what games their kids play.

But I can’t help but wonder about my judgment as I accept more and more of what I am watching. After all of this exposure, how good will my judgment be?

Wells resident Julie Seedorf’s column appears every Monday. Send e-mail to her at thecolumn@bevcomm.net. Her blog is paringdown.wordpress.com. Listen to KBEW AM radio 1:30 p.m. Sundays for “Something About Nothing.”