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Is “Vengeance” Our Middle Name? |
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Posted 2/3/2010 at 3:02 PM by Bradlee A |
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I have an appetite for revenge.
I recently came to this conclusion while struggling through Quentin Tarantino’s latest, Inglourious Basterds. I wouldn’t recommend this movie to anyone who has eyes or ears. Even though it was nominated for an Oscar, I still contend it was terrible. I’d like to say that this movie glorified violence and killing, but this verdict falls way short. It mocked every human being working for peace with the blood and gore that was carelessly splashed into the eyes of the viewer, taunting us with a promise that every witness would be completely desensitized to all violence in a mere three hours. Tarantino thinks he is funny and his joke is death. If his quest was to make the average viewers uncomfortable and to question why they enjoy action movies, it was a magnificent success.
Another movie I recently saw that made me cringe, was Law Abiding Citizen, with Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler. The blatant violence in it is nothing short of horrific at times. I glanced at my girlfriend with apologetic eyes at multiple occasions through the movie for even suggesting we see it.
I, however, didn’t go into these movies feeling they would be bad. In fact I was looking for some harmless big-screen fun where good not only conquers the bad, it decimates it. But I noticed a feeling in myself when I was watching both. During the scenes where the righteous heroes get revenge on the do-badders, I had a feeling of teeth-gritting satisfaction; a “hell-yeah” or “stick it to ‘em” that resonates with a lot of movies I’ve watched.
The worst part of the epiphany was that I knew I wasn’t alone in this feeling of satisfaction. Others in the theater started laughing when on screen villains died. Cheers of joy and clapping spontaneously erupted when vengeance was taken.
When multiple people in the theater shout and cheer when a blood is spurting from someone’s neck, or when a theater of people engulfs in flames, it really makes you consider why you decided on that movie. I began to ask myself, Why do I, why do so many of us, take satisfaction in seeing someone on screen being harmed after they have inflicted harm on another? Why do we revel in vengeance?
The feeling conjured up past instances where I’ve felt the same thing.
After the terrorist attacks of 9/11 when the United States attacked Al Qaeda in Afghanistan I unfortunately felt good, after all, nobody screws with the United States of America. When we attacked Iraq in 2003, although I was feeling like it was incredibly rushed, I still felt a bit of satisfaction. I even remember as far back as 1990. I was eight years old, watching the U.S. rain bombs down on Baghdad in August of that year and I felt good about it. A little “hell yea” went through my eight-year-old mind because I thought Saddam was getting what he deserved for attacking Kuwait.
This says a lot about the United States of America, and possibly the world. If many of us are already programmed to want revenge and to feel satisfaction when we get it, how easy it is to conjure up support for military retaliation when our enemies strike first?
It makes me think about PeaceJam’s Global Call to Action Issue: Breaking the Cycle of Violence. “One of the first things that we must do is to dismantle our own armed consciousness because we are children of a culture of violence, and our minds have been armed.”
My mind has been armed and this appetite for revenge is the ultimate proof of it.
Jody Williams says, “Emotion without action is irrelevant.” It’s obvious that I have some strong emotions towards the do-badders of the world. But instead of being ashamed of this anger or acting out violently, I’ve realized that I can harness it to fuel my quest for social change, to take action against these ills to create positive change.
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