Eclectic Dreams
Howard Nemerov looks at the Los Angeles Times‘ argument that violence in movies are a therapeutic way of getting aggression off the public’s chest. “A good deal of movie violence is designed as a way for us to experience it vicariously.” Video violence doesn’t cause violence: helps reduce it. It’s a myth that the billion-dollar entertainment industry contributes to killings.
However the presence guns — even toy guns — can cause unspeakable damage to the mind. PBS reports on how one mother has been coping with Second Amendment pollution in her home: “I blame George Washington for my son’s obsession with guns.”
It all started when my husband took our preschooler to Mount Vernon, home to the “father of our country.” They came home with a tricorner hat, a compass, and a cute little wooden popgun. That was last year. Today, our house is littered with toy slingshots, cannons, and guns—the result of a growing fascination with “good guys,” “bad guys,” and all of the banging and kabooming that goes on in between.
Until recently, I had become adept at making jokes about my son’s fascination with toy guns. I figured, this is probably just a phase; it will pass soon enough, right? Unfortunately, the horrific shootings in Tucson, Arizona have shed glaring new light on the gun play in my house. Can a fascination with guns go too far?
Sure it can. The basic problem is that the little kid has the wrong role model. That’s why the modern mother should buy the Maisto Fresh Metal Tailwinds 1:97 Predator Drone for her son to play with. In that way the mother’s child can shift his admiration from George Washington to Barack Obama. One product reviewer at the Amazon site wrote glowingly of the product:
You’ve had a busy play day – You’ve wiretapped Mom’s cell phone and e-mail without a warrant, you’ve indefinitely detained your little brother Timmy in the linen closet without trial, and you’ve confiscated all the Super-Soakers from the neighborhood children (after all, why does any kid – besides you, of course – even NEED a Super-Soaker for self-defense? A regular water pistol should be enough). What do you do for an encore?
That’s where the US Air Force Medium Altitude, Long Endurance, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) RQ-1 Predator from Maisto comes in.
Let’s say that Dad has been labeled a terrorist in secret through your disposition matrix. Rather than just arrest him and go through the hassle of trying and convicting him in a court of law, and having to fool with all those terrorist-loving Constitutional protections, you can just use one of these flying death robots to assassinate him! Remember, due process and oversight are for sissies. Plus, you get the added bonus of taking out potential terrorists before they’ve even done anything – estimates have determined that you can kill up to 49 potential future terrorists of any age for every confirmed terrorist you kill, and with the innovative ‘double-tap’ option, you can even kill a few terrorist first responders, preventing them from committing terrorist acts like helping the wounded and rescuing survivors trapped in the rubble. Don’t let Dad get away with anti-American activities! Show him who’s boss, whether he’s at a wedding, a funeral, or just having his morning coffee. Sow fear and carnage in your wake! Win a Nobel Peace Prize and be declared Time Magazine’s Person of the Year – Twice!
This goes well with the Maisto Extraordinary Rendition playset, by the way – which gives you all the tools you need to kidnap the family pet and take him for interrogation at a neighbor’s house, where the rules of the Geneva Convention may not apply. Loads of fun!
Perhaps the truth is that ‘guns’ were part and parcel of an obsolete image of masculinity. Back in the day men dreamed of joining the Foreign Legion to forget a woman and to fight their country’s enemies with bolt-action rifles! Men were supposed to be straight and know how to shoot guns. How horrible that was. Today any remake of Beau Geste should cast the protagonists as metrosexual so they are less hateful. And what would be the use of guns now that the world has the US Air Force Medium Altitude, Long Endurance, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) RQ-1 Predator?
Bonus question: what is the connection between Buster Crabbe Flash Gordon serials and the Laurel and Hardy film clip below?
The Three Conjectures at Amazon Kindle for $1.99
Storming the Castle at Amazon Kindle for $3.99
No Way In at Amazon Kindle $8.95, print $9.99
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Is Ming the Merciless playing at being an admiral?
Yes, that is Charles Middleton as the Foreign Legion officer. “Ming the Merciless”.
55 years ago I spent a lot of time building and attempting to fly balsa and paper rubber band powered model airplanes, hoping to get big and rich enough to purchase an .049 engine.
Short years later I saw my first Radio Controlled model. Green with envy, I soon found out that RC was for grown ups…money being the key factor.
Now, decades later, I watch RC modellers flying turbine jet models equipped with video and some payload capacity. The electronics cost the same in 2012 as they did in 1960. That makes them cheeeeap.
Balsa? Nah, carbon fiber.
Hobby Lobby et al is all about girls. The Boys Toys take up only one small half aisle of a big box store. So you order online.
A semi-technical teenager or really smart 12 year old can build, equip, fly and with GPS navigate his own UAV (Bet you thought I would never get to the point!)
With half a brain a single shot barrel could be fitted and bore sighted to the video.
And we worry about 18th century technology (guns) ?
duh
Thanks for the clip – it starts slow but leaves you laughing til the tears flow; while wondering over an artful comedy that demonstrates the highest of skill, while looking as natural as tipping your hat.
For those faking at Captain — and those enjoying dark, dark, comedy:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/18/3241114/us-coast-guard-carnival-triumph.html
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/18/17006526-coast-guard-finds-fuel-leak-caused-engine-fire-on-carnival-triumph?lite
Put simply: when a single fuel return line leaked, (every Diesel engine shunts excess fuel back from its injectors to the fuel tank as a mechanism for cooling their internal parts) spraying hot fuel onto the exterior of the motor — it ignited — billowing smoke.
Instead of turning the engine off — and instantly dousing the fuel source — the crew ran away — and the captain let the engine run on until it was ruined.
For some crazed reason the idiots figured that a flame suppression system would solve the gusher.
(The engine space is four stories tall for these slo-rev Diesels, BTW.)
If the engine had been promptly stopped — an at-sea repair would’ve bandaged the leak in a couple of hours.
The Diesel is so big and deep that it may be necessary to cut open the top and back of the ship to get at it. That could make this a $1,000,000,000 total loss.
That’s nothing compared to having Saint Barry in the wheelhouse.
The Cliff’s Notes of the linked article: “My child’s interest in guns was a major embarassment with the rest of the Enlightened Moms I hang with. I used humor as a coping mechanism, but I was denying how serious the issue was – I was under suspicion of raising a . . . . non-liberal. Once I said it out loud, I knew the only responsible thing to do was address my son’s failure. Luckily, I found a person with fancy credentials that stated a few obvious truths. By citing his guidelines, I was able to regain my status in the tribe.”
Do liberals understand the contradiction in what they support and oppose? Guns are bad because they teach children to be violent. Even imaginary guns (finger pointed and saying “bang”) are forbidden in schools. But graphic movie violence is good, it is an outlet that leads to less actual violence. Hmmm, OK.
I think such blatant contradictions will lead to some kind of liberal psychic crack-up. So pointing out the contradiction is good (the sooner the crack-up, the better).
On a related note, didn’t those old movies like the westerns we grew up with show violence as a last resort to be avoided? Good guy cowboys didn’t look for trouble but they didn’t back down when it came to them. Contrast this with the modern violent movies where the anti-heros love to kill and seek out situations where they can blow people away. Isn’t the amorality of modern violence in movies the real problem? Older movies were morality plays where violence was only used to restore piece when bad men broke it. In newer movies violence is the whole point.
Stan was the brains of the duo. Look up “A Chump at Oxford” on Youtube to see him in a different light.
Another child is trapped with an abusive neurotic parent. Who will heel their pain? Who will foot the therapy bill? Insert “South Park” clip, “Will someone think of the children?”
Has anyone read “The Dangerous Book For Boys?” If so how is it?
“PBS reports on how one mother has been coping with Second Amendment pollution in her home: ‘I blame George Washington for my son’s obsession with guns.’”
Ummmm, how does one cope with incessant leftist propaganda in one’s home? You used to be able to shoot the television but now it’s all over the damn place, like your computer and cell phone (not to mention in doctor’s offices and airports…)
blast @ 8 – The word of mouth is excellent http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dangerous_Book_for_Boys
Other favorites include the Boy Scout Manual
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_Scout_Handbook
and the Bluejacket’s Manual
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluejacket_manual
One of the young men in my sailing class was recently awarded the Quartermaster Award by the Sea Scouts after making Eagle Scout at age 15. He joined us at age 8. I was his Eagle Scout Project Adviser.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartermaster_Award_(Boy_Scouts_of_America)
A goal for the class this year is to teach the kids, particularly the boys, to dance.
Lesson One – Choosing a dance partner.
Look for a girl with her eyes and ears open, mouth closed and a big smile on her pretty face.
From the PBS article: “Boys probably have some yet-unknown gene which contributes to this behavior,” he adds. “Think about men being the hunter/gatherer and needing to kill for food and to protect their family.”
Good old PBS! Can always rely on them to spill the beans about the Political Class’s dreams. This explains Soetero’s sudden interest in mapping the brain. He wants to find that evil “yet-unknown gene” and get it out the gene pool.
Then the surviving Americans can sit quietly and watch as Islamists & Chinese kill each other with abandon — to decide who gets to be our slave master.
Of course, all this ignores culture. There are people who are enocuraged by screen violence. I recall hearing that Rambo II was the #1 movie in Beruit at the time, a place where you would think people got their fill of shootings and blowing stuff up. And the film Boyz in the Hood produced fights, stabbings and shootings in the parking lot.
In contrast, I know of no instance in which someone went to see the movie Twister and wanted to grow up to be a tornado. It probably did spawn some storm chaser enthusiasts, and I don’t think that is bad.
But if you assume that all cultures are equal and equally valid, then yes, you do have to make sure you don’t put the wrong things in the little darlings’ heads or let them play with toy guns.
I might comment but have been unable to read the article. For the last few weeks about 1/4 of the text of each entry here has been obscured by advertising. Is there some whiz-bang tech-kid stuff I can do to actually read what’s been written?
Apropos of graphic violence in movies: I remember my high school literature teacher explaining that the reason why murders, battles and the like take place offstage in classical Greek tragedy (and in most of Shakespeare’s tragedies as well) is the Aristotelian notion of κάθαρσις (catharsis), a term derived from medicine to describe the purgation or cleansing of the viewer’s passions. The classical playwrights held that it was sufficient for the audience to imagine the murder of Agamemnon, say, or King Duncan– which are typically described by the chorus or minor characters rather than re-enacted onstage– to be able to release their personal feelings of pity, rage, fear, or other strong emotions; the viewers didn’t need to watch actual or realistically simulated violence to take out their own emotional garbage, so to speak. And they would go home after the performance with an aesthetically as well as psychologically satisfying experience.
#13 Mendel Telebendee
I use Adblock Plus in my browser to block annoying ads. The version of Adblock for Firefox can be downloaded at http://adblockplus.org/en/firefox.
It’s also available for Chrome at http://download.cnet.com/Adblock-for-Chrome/3000-33362_4-75000931.html, which will redirect you to the Chrome site.
I’ve used Adblock for several years now– it’s free and it works well. Good luck!
@3. michael hoskins
) Point is Drones are cheap, Easy and effective, no rocket Science required,
I spent 100$ in 2006 on an RC plane, got hooked, and spent another 5 Grand,but after a while I could build a full blown Surveillance plane with audio and video for about 25$ in servos and motors, and built airframes for about 1$ adding on a micro video camera.
We once installed an Airsoft barrel and firing mechanism, which fired great(we couldn’t aim for Sh**
Bob
@ Mendel, try Firefox with AdBlock
Danke Mr. Cat. I vas at my veets end!
#17 Mendel Telebendee
Bitte sehr, or as the French would say, de rien. I’m glad I could help.
I have a collection of Cox .049s and parts. I still build U-control, because I realized at an early age that if let myself get hooked on R/C, I would end up in the poor house. Ironically, I almost got UAV pilot as my MOS, and this was just before they became a big deal. Have a decent gun collection now, though.
@Monkey2111 , check out Electric RC, very cheap, quiet enough to fly in Parks,Brushless motors and LiPo batteries are very cheap and WAY powerful,
Always buy online for these things, China needs the Bernanke Bucks,
Bob
Eaten post,
OMG! Ming the Merciless has infiltrated the French Foreign Legion. Nothing can save Flash Gordon now.
“A good deal of movie violence is designed as a way for us to experience it vicariously.”
No one is strapped down for Ludovico treatment. People pay lots of money to see themselves mocked in motion-picture dramas. (Megaupload catches the rest, or it did before submitting itself as material.) This would be tolerable if it were only about movies, however duping citizens with fake news is a criminal crime. If it weren’t for British tabloids and Drudge Report’s flagrant debasement, we might never know Fox and CNN lie too!
Go ahead and believe some Latter Day Saint owns a harem of ugly women romping around in prairie dresses… I am not stupid. Nearly all we’ve been taught about cults, crackers, and communism is wrong. We really can afford Coke purchase by giving up cable. I would like to buy one for British papers and Matt Drudge, who are truly extreme heroes of mine.
For some more excellent youth literature, check out “The Mad Scientists Club”, by Bertrand Brinley. Good stuff.
Something else struck me while watching the clip. The routine with the hats. W.C. and Chaplin always seemed to have some type of hat gag(juggling) in their movies. Wonder if it was a must do at the time.
and what is the acronymn for “Medium Altitude, Long Endurance”? MALE. Sounds kind of Freudian doesn’t it?
#3 michael hoskins
Being a law abiding, peaceful sort [stop that infernal giggling] I have to point out that mounting a firearm on a UAV or drone is a Federal crime. The State is a jealous possessor of the right to kill from the air. However, it not only is not a technically difficult task with an accurate sighting system, but a perfectly legal demonstration has been videoed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jplh7uatr-E
This is not as purely theoretical as it may seem. Consider, it is part of the current political debate whether the State has the power and authority to target and kill American citizens anywhere in the world [including on American territory] by drone, without charge or due process. There have been public discussions of establishing what functionally would be a Star Chamber court choosing victims secretly. The current regime claims the power, and the Democrat Minority Leader of the House also has publicly claimed that the fact that they were killing Americans at will on US soil should be kept secret from the American public.
Let us look, say a year, into our future. Convenient to the government “deaths from above” are part of the background noise. But are all of them official? Consider groups such as OCCUPY, OFA, the UAW, the “Purple People Beaters”, etc. for whom threats against enemies and dehumanization of opponents is already the norm. Won’t they be getting into this game? And in these days of selective law enforcement, the odds of them being subject to the Federal laws noted above are minimal. Any groups opposed to the regime would, of course, be the focus of law enforcement efforts.
Now throw in another bit of joy. We have a great number of foreign activists and real terrorists in this country. This is a cheap and easy game to play. What if the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Quada, the various ethnic gangs, or various separatist movements join the party? Would they be prosecuted? Free for all anyone?
Now toss in the fact that all players may be engaging in false flag operations.
Oh, Brave New World that has such people [and things] in it.
Subotai Bahadur