Violence On TV Essay, Research Paper

” I never learned which party was victorious, nor the cause of the war, But I felt for the rest of that day, as if I had had my feelings excited and harrowed by witnessing the struggle…”

(Henry David Thoreau)

These days our whole life seems to revolve around violence. There are so many channels on TV that advocate violence on a daily basis. Sports that we see every Sunday stir up aggressiveness and bring anger to a high level. Around school conflicts seem to occur frequently. We get excited whenever we come across these situations and sometimes don’t know what caused the ordeal in the first place but nevertheless it grabs us and we become involved, mentally and/or physically.

The television set is a virtual fire hose of violence being forced into our minds. Whenever there is a boxing match that is a bigger fight than usual, Pay-Per-View is always there charging anywhere from thirty to sixty dollars so we can all sit back, relax, and watch two men(or women) dance around a ring and beat the brains out of each other. God I love America! Even on basic cable we have these wonderful children’s programs like The Mighty Morphine Power Rangers, cartoons (eventhogh I love them), and the V.R. Troopers, to name a couple. Surprise! they are either based on fighting or getting smashed by trucks and we laugh and we love it. It’s hard to beat watching someone else beat up on after you just had a bad day.

Football and hockey, can’t beat them but no one really cares about the principle of the game we all just want to see the big hits. When watching football highlights the things they love to show the most are the career ending tackles usually before they even show the scores, hey who cares about the score after you just saw some guy get annihilated by a 250 pound linebacker, we just get excited about the hit. Hockey, The sport in which you can get a nice five minute break for kicking the not out of someone during. You have got to love it when the crowd is louder over the thirty second fight than they are during the rest of the game.

For those who think violence is only restricted to TV Land, well there is violence in our high school as well(shocker, huh?). Well every once in a while we get to witness a lovely fist-fight between two or more students, and the occasional unwilling faculty member. Those brawls aren’t blown-off by the students either. Nah, we love to see a good fight and talk about it after the day is over.

It’s sad to say but violence is one of our national staples. Whether you are a hill-billy from the Ozarks or a millionaire counting you’re thousand dollar bills in you’re penthouse in downtown Manhattan you have experienced violence in one shape or form. After everything’s all said and done sometimes you forget what the fight was about. Whether it’s human nature or something instilled over time, violence is a part of our lives and we just have to deal with it.