Sunday, January 8, 2012

The Search for the Darkness


It seems that many people around the world are searching for the darkness. Once you've seen "Oldboy," part of a trilogy from Korea, you start to wonder why there's an obsession for the dark side across the globe.

Therapists say is  has had quite an impact on the 18 to 30 generation. You wonder if it isn't part of a global desensitization.

I don't want to sum up the plot of "Oldboy," because you can always stream it on Netflix. Suffice to say, I saw enough as a reporter not to need a trip into hell. People I'm close to in the aforementioned demographic group don't have the same reaction to violence that I have.

Vampire stories have been around since "Vlad the Impaler" surfaced in Transylvania in the last century. (Transylvania was once part of Austria Hungary, and is now in Romania) Movies about Dracula were made in the 1930s and people used to joke about them. Now the movies and TV shows about vampires are omnipresent.

Hollywood producers for the last 30 years have hidden behind the First Amendment to produce gorier and gorier movies. (But Alexander Meikeljohn said people need free speech because they vote) The stretching of the First Amendment to cover carnage got sold to the America people by a ubiquitous media that wanted to make more money.

But the damage is done. I wonder how different generations view a hideous auto accident, or a terrorist incident? Is it all just theater? Does it touch people's souls? How many youth actually believe vampires are real?

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