Derwood

Something very interesting just happened to me that opened my eyes in the argument that we often hear about how we are desensitized to violence due to movies and television.

I just watched "Scarface" for the first time, which, if you haven't seen it, is very violent. Lots of shooting, stabbing, even a chainsaw....get my drift? Well while watching the movie, the violence didn't really shock me much. Nothing I haven't seen before, and the movie really wasn't that good, so the violence wasn't really a redeeming factor.

So, all that death and I shrug it off. Desensitized, right?

Well right after I turn off the movie, I catch a story on Sportscenter about this goaltender for the Sabres who, back in 1989, was in a collision in the goal during a game where another player's skate cut his corotid artery. They showed the game clip, and right after the collision, the goalie grabs his throat. When he removes his hand, blood just sprays onto the ice. In a matter of 2 of 3 seconds, there is a 3 foot pool of blood on the ice.

Well let me tell you, I felt all the blood run out of my extremities and I had to sit down hard not to pass out. The footage really shook me.

So, what's the difference between Scarface and Sportscenter? Scarface is fiction, and no matter how realistic the violence in that movie (or any other movie, video game, tv show, etc.) is depicted, it's always fantasy. But the story about the goalie was real, and seeing real blood in a real situation was really disturbing.

So I don't know what kind of discussion this is supposed to start, but I just had to "talk" about this, and what better place than here?

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"You can't shoot a country until it becomes a democracy." - Willravel