I enjoy watching movies. It's true. I am exhilerated by the ability of a movie to make me believe in magic and meet characters I never would have imagined could exist. I'm thinking mostly, of course, of movies such as Bolt, X-Men, Monsters Inc., etc. I'm also grateful to movies for their ability to show me other lifestyles in a way that's believable and from which I can almost always learn more by watching others about who I am and what I want from life. Documentaries are also keen.
However.
Last night we watched The Incredible Hulk. (I've discovered recently that I have a certain affiliation for comic-book based movies. Their magic powers and stuff takes me back to a childhood belief that "it could have been me!".) While I was fascinated by the Hulk and the plot, I was disappointed by all of the (un)necessary violence used to tell the story. I suppose that violence is inherent when telling the story of The Incredible Hulk. He is, afterall, a giant bulky/hulky hugely-muscular man who only gets big and green when he's *angry*. But still. I think I'm also speaking with residual images lurking in my mind from watching The Quantum of Solace (the latest 007 movie) which teems with violence and beautiful sexy women.
So I started thinking about all of the movies out there in the world and all the movies I enjoy watching (which, as it turns out, doesn't include 007 movies) and all the media that our young and not-so-young population is absorbing and how we are inevitably being affected and how our sense of normal is warping/changing/morphing as a direct result, however slowly or imperceptibly. And I wonder how this is influencing our personal actions, our worldviews, our interactions with other people, our tolerance for violence in the news, with each other, in our homes. And it makes me rather sad because I know when I watch 007, by the 3rd fight scene I'm no longer covering my eyes, and by the end of the movie I've become bored with the violent and numerous ways to kill a person. And I know that in real life, violence is never boring. And I hope that we, as a people, don't become so bored with violence that we stop caring about Rwanda, Darfur, and even our neighbors.
That being said, I still enjoy watching movies. In my own life, the stand I will make is with my pocketbook and only watch movies I "approve" of. I could, if highly motivated, work to get others to be aware. (Working to eliminate such movies goes against my principle of freedom of choice, but promoting awareness in making choices is something I consider highly valuable.) But I think I'll start with shaping my own actions for now and stick within the comfort of lazy. There are so many causes in the world, I'd rather exert energy changing the world in different ways. Now to just stop being lazy enough to start changing the world in other ways...that's the challenge!
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