I fully believe that we are dangling on the end of a thin thread, the thread being Sin City. It is a city that all [humans] are apart of. It is a world subservient to pop culture and its influences. Violence is being more and more encouraged, the chief source being television. And what do the critics say? "Brilliant!" and "I loved it!" There was a magazine article in the Newsweek once featuring how PG-13 movies are becoming more and more violent. The chief source of this violence was the necessity of fighting in order to demonstrate valour and bravery and courage. Take Star Wars, for instance, there is a dark lord called the Sith, and his apprentice, fighting against the Jedis, the "light" or ethical side. Watching the excited fans in a movie theater featuring the "Revenge of the Sith," I am privy to the spectators' delighted fascination during the bloodbaths of the Jedis fighting the menacing Sith.
In another article in Times, there was a report featuring prodigious increase in the sales of action and fighting games. From 2004 - 2005 alone the sales jumped nearly 30%! The more we become disciples of violence, we lower down the thread we are and the more attached to Sin City we become.
There is a point that I fervently disagree with on the article, however. They said that violence is "liberating stuff" and that it is "human nature, brutish and cruel.” I believe that at the heart of human existence is a moral and ethical absolute that is grounded to our conscience, gravitating us to help and respond to our fellow neighbors' demands. That in spite of how brutal and cruel one can be, there is still, no matter what, a moral absolute, vastly outnumbered but not defeated. Let's take the Star Wars example again, Anakin Skywalker, the protagonist for the first three books, is the apprentice of the Sith, hence the aka "Darth Vader". In spite of killing an eminent Jedi and a failed attempt to kill his former mentor, Darth Vader, servant of the Emperor, managed to become the valour yearning, innocent Jedi he once was for a fraction of a second. Anakin Skywalker, "killing" Darth Vader, surfaced again to overthrow and kill the Emperor, the Dark Sith Lord. Although the situations might look bad, we always have a glimmering spark of love and moral conscience in our hearts. To be a "good" or "bad" person on the surface is entirely up to you. To be or not to be, that is the question.