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Feb. 21st, 2005 05:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatLast night's television provided two excellent lines of dialogue in otherwise lacklustre presentations, both from Boston Legal.
1. "If you are out there murdering people, on some level you must want to be Christian." stated by Alan shore's secretary Betty White to Bernard, a serial killer who professes to be Jewish and she is attempting to steer towards God.
2. "Let's face it, as long as the person being tortured is the or a potential bad guy, we're fine with it." Alan Shore to the jury while defending a cop who'd tortured a suspect into revealing the whereabouts of a missing child.
Both made me think and ponder. Is it part of the human condition - that we excuse hurting people we don't like or hate? Even on TV shows, we excuse the good characters who torture people - because hey, they are torturing the villian. But isn't it a subjective thing? In our world - how do you know who the bad guys and good guys are? Was watching an old Western last night, called The Professionals, starring Robert Ryan, Woody Strode, Burt Lancaster, and Lee Marvin. They were hired to rescue a kidnapped wife from a Mexican desperado. Only to discover that the wife hadn't been kidnapped, except by her rich American husband. In the Western - Lancaster states..."the question is who are the good guys here?" Are we?
On fanboards, people get livid when anyone suggests Buffy, the heroine, was not so nice since she tortured vampires or was mean to Spike - because he was the villian. Soulless. Evil. So that in of itself makes it okay. Besides TV show. Then flip channels -watch NYPD Blue for a few minutes - Sipowitz tortures a suspect. OR flip again - and see the West Wing, when the Pres orders the execution of a terrorist or proposed terrorist. Or flip again and watch Charmed. Or Alias - as Sydney tortures suspects. Hey they tortured her.
Then watch the News - the FCC is bearing down on any expressions of nudity or mentions of certain sexual situations, but violence isn't mentioned. OR go to a fanboard - people got all hot and bothered with the sex scenes between Spike and Buffy - why can't we watch her *kill* vampires instead of sleeping with them, they whined. More *slaying* less *laying*. It's just not good Christian values.
Makes one wonder if David E. Kelly didn't inadvertently nail it with those two lines. I can't help but wonder looking at our culture, the reality shows, the culture wars, the obsession with violent sports such as Football, Rugby, the current situation in the world and think human beings are predatory animals.
And when we can't hunt animals we hunt ourselves, we prey on our own species.
It's in our nature. In the DNA. Yet, yet - is this true? Every time it's brought up in discussion - people scream and yell in denial. I'm not like that.
But my question remains ...aren't you? And what hope can we have of escaping a pattern, if we refuse to even acknowledge that it exists? Or should we even attempt to escape it? I don't know. I'm not sure it's necessarily bad thing to have this instinct - it may be the secret to our survival as a specisis. After all - nice, loving, non-violent animals don't tend to live very long on this planet. But it may be like things - something to do in moderation? No biologist or sociologist. Just pondering.
1. "If you are out there murdering people, on some level you must want to be Christian." stated by Alan shore's secretary Betty White to Bernard, a serial killer who professes to be Jewish and she is attempting to steer towards God.
2. "Let's face it, as long as the person being tortured is the or a potential bad guy, we're fine with it." Alan Shore to the jury while defending a cop who'd tortured a suspect into revealing the whereabouts of a missing child.
Both made me think and ponder. Is it part of the human condition - that we excuse hurting people we don't like or hate? Even on TV shows, we excuse the good characters who torture people - because hey, they are torturing the villian. But isn't it a subjective thing? In our world - how do you know who the bad guys and good guys are? Was watching an old Western last night, called The Professionals, starring Robert Ryan, Woody Strode, Burt Lancaster, and Lee Marvin. They were hired to rescue a kidnapped wife from a Mexican desperado. Only to discover that the wife hadn't been kidnapped, except by her rich American husband. In the Western - Lancaster states..."the question is who are the good guys here?" Are we?
On fanboards, people get livid when anyone suggests Buffy, the heroine, was not so nice since she tortured vampires or was mean to Spike - because he was the villian. Soulless. Evil. So that in of itself makes it okay. Besides TV show. Then flip channels -watch NYPD Blue for a few minutes - Sipowitz tortures a suspect. OR flip again - and see the West Wing, when the Pres orders the execution of a terrorist or proposed terrorist. Or flip again and watch Charmed. Or Alias - as Sydney tortures suspects. Hey they tortured her.
Then watch the News - the FCC is bearing down on any expressions of nudity or mentions of certain sexual situations, but violence isn't mentioned. OR go to a fanboard - people got all hot and bothered with the sex scenes between Spike and Buffy - why can't we watch her *kill* vampires instead of sleeping with them, they whined. More *slaying* less *laying*. It's just not good Christian values.
Makes one wonder if David E. Kelly didn't inadvertently nail it with those two lines. I can't help but wonder looking at our culture, the reality shows, the culture wars, the obsession with violent sports such as Football, Rugby, the current situation in the world and think human beings are predatory animals.
And when we can't hunt animals we hunt ourselves, we prey on our own species.
It's in our nature. In the DNA. Yet, yet - is this true? Every time it's brought up in discussion - people scream and yell in denial. I'm not like that.
But my question remains ...aren't you? And what hope can we have of escaping a pattern, if we refuse to even acknowledge that it exists? Or should we even attempt to escape it? I don't know. I'm not sure it's necessarily bad thing to have this instinct - it may be the secret to our survival as a specisis. After all - nice, loving, non-violent animals don't tend to live very long on this planet. But it may be like things - something to do in moderation? No biologist or sociologist. Just pondering.