Violence

I am aware that our society is increasingly receptive to violence as entertainment. Yes, video games, movies, tv shows and news have saturated our lives with violence. But I'm still convinced that ours is one of the softest societies in history.

Let me offer more disclaimers and qualifications before I explain. I know we have our share of sickos who do live on violence and an entire generation of video gamers who vicariously enjoy it or tolerate in huge amounts. That is not in question. Nor is my suggestion that we're soft an appeal to hearken back to colder, bloodier days.

I'm just saying we're not as tough as we think we are. We could not stomach a victorious general putting to sword a whole conquered city, like Joshua or Scipio or Vlad the Impaler. We really couldn't go along with dismembering enemies to teach them a lesson, like the Romans or Crusaders or Huns.I don't think many of us would put to death a rival's entire family like ancient and middle age and 17th century dynasties. We certainly can't tolerate more than 3000 casualties in a decade of war, let alone tens or hundreds of thousands a day as in the Civil and Great Wars. In fact, I think most of us, from the casual first-person-shooter gamer to the bloodlusting-horror-movie-and-9-hours-a-day-shooting-aliens-and-civilians-just-for-fun freaks would wet our pants if we found ourselves in the same century as some of history's worst, let alone face-to-face.

History has already borne out how quickly rampant and unnecessary violence can become the stuff of everyday- Roman Gladiators, the French Revolution- so let us beware. The fascination with violence could quickly become a culture of violence, as history repeats itself...