Does "The Purge" movie appeal to our dark side for violence & revenge?

[James Nored]

Here is Wikipedia's entry on the new movie, "The Purge."  

"In 2022, the United States has become a single state party ruled by the New Founding Fathers of America, which has instituted through the 28th Amendment an annual twelve-hour period called "The Purge" during which all criminal activity becomes legal, including murder; the homeless and those too poor to afford protection are the primary victims of the night. Citizens consider it a patriotic duty to participate in The Purge if they feel the need to."

This movie has a pretty wild and scary premise--a government that encourages broadscale murder and crime as way to weed out the poor, the weak, and serve as a deterrent for crime throughout the rest of the year. According to the movie, these things seem to be working, as crime is virtually non-existent and unemployment is at 1%. What a utopia!

This movie is pretty scary in what it unveils--our dark desire to take revenge and commit violence. Remember, it was because the world was "filled with violence" that God destroyed the world with the flood in Genesis 6.

And the fact that it is set in 2022--just around the corner--may reveal more than that it was low budget movie with a $3 million dollar budget (those futuristic cars and sets are quite a bit more expensive to film). It may reveal the desire that we have in our hearts today to commit violence and take revenge.  In other words, its time frame hits very close to home.

Additionally, The Purge's unexpected box office opening of $37 million may point towards the dark appeal or the concern about this appeal in our society today. Certainly, tv shows and movies are becoming more and more violent today--is this a portending of things to come? Does this movie appeal to the dark fantasies that we have in regards to our enemies?

What do you think that this movie says about our society? Is our world becoming more violent and vengeful? What should our response be?

[Jackson Haley]

Kind of a vice and sin jubilee, huh?

A good body of evidence points to a decreasingly violent world as it develops and goes through a civilizing process (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Civilizing_Process).

Some people speculate that religion is a key civilizing influence causing this, with lagging results. Others speculate that the decline/moderation of religion-statism, has blunted the ability for leaders to use religion as a tools for promoting violence in their interest.

That we feel the world is becoming more violent is mostly a matter of biased perception. Modern media tends to repeat and dwell on a violent event. This magnifies events well beyond their statistical significance. That we feel the world is becoming more violent demonstrates a heightened sensitivity to it.

Additionally, that humans are less accepting of violence, and more repulsed by it than ever is what makes the media magnification of isolated events work so well to build ratings.

I remember my great-grandmother telling me how her mother singlehandedly killed a thieving "savage" once. She meant an American Indian. The story was told with absolutely no consideration for the humanity of the Native American. He was, by definition, subhuman. The story was about how tough a pioneer she was, not about her taking of a life.

Now, we are appalled by this story. But people back then were mostly not. This was day-to-day violence. Most of which went unreported or unaddressed. It simply wasn't unusual enough to make the papers or get the attention of authorities.

That we have a word like genocide (coined in 1944) is itself progress. That we abhor genocide, recognize it and hate it as a species, almost universally, is progress.