HBO's Propensity Toward Violence is Good for Us

[Troy]

During I questioned whether all of the over the top violence had a negative effect on our psyches.  I tend to believe if does but there are school of thought that suggests that it is good for us.  The idea is pretty interesting and considering the apparent alternative--actual violence I'd have to pick the stuff HBO serves up.

 

SciFri: The Origins of Violence (listen to broadcast)
Thursday, April 03, 2014 2:00 PM
An anthropologist, a psychologist, and a crime writer ask: Are humans hard-wired for violence?

 

[Cynique]

Nothing came up when I clicked on the link. 

 

My thoughts on the subject would be that the vicarious experiences provided by witnessing violence on the screen provides a catharsis for people.   Violence is a survivial mechanism still present in our species and it aids and abets our adrenalin glands.   if you happen to be civilized enough to abstain from acting out your repressed instincts, watching others commit violence can induce a reaction that both repels and thrills. If you lead dull conservative lives, this kind of reaction provides an excitement akin to that of forbidden fruit.      

[Troy]

I'm not sure why the link did not work.  try this one: http://www.sciencefriday.com/audio/scifriaudio.xml Then select the show on violence. 

 

Essentially, you summed up the opinion of one of the guests I forget whcih one, it may have been Steven Pinker.  At any rate, the idea goes counter to the prevailing beliefs among psychologists today.

[CDBurns]

As with anything like this, there has to be a caveat. Violence in the adolescent mind is a completely different thing. I do agree though that porn, violence in movies and buffets (yep buffets) do satisfy the need to overindulge and that the overindulgence can be cathartic to those who live a day to day existence that doesn't include being creative in some fashion.

 

I think we all have those violent tendencies that become very apparent when we are driving, or on hold with customer service. There is an underlying anger when we are crowded or forced to stand in lines. It's like the cut scene from a film where the person imagines gunning down everyone around them. Does watching these type of things decrease violence? Who knows and it's up for debate, but I think there is a limit to what type of violence is seen. The violence in the Human Caterpillar, Hostile, Saw 3 and on, snuff films, I think are all detrimental to the psyche and can push people over the edge. That type of violence is not the same as the HBO stuff which is comically gratuitous, but not quite horrifying. It is stunning (especially the Red Wedding!) but it is not repulsive and disturbing. HBO does a great job with creating the character and framing the violence in the context of that character.

[Cynique]

My grandson was shocked and sorry to hear that the famous wrestler who went by the name "The Undertaker" had died.  So were millions of other wrestling fans. The parodized version of this sport enjoys a large enthusiastic following on TV.  Why? Because it is a chest-beating, macho exercise in violence, replete with body slams, head locks, fisticuffs and bloody noses. Making it even more compelling is that all of this mayhem is conducted within the context of a good guy versus the bad guy scenario. If this low brow choreographed foolishness isn't vicarious entertainment, then I don't know what is.  It certainly makes a case for the impact of empathy

 

To contend that watching and enjoying violence damages our psyche may be true.  But to imply that those whose reject "violence as art" sanitize their sensibilities is debateable.   People have daily encounters that vex them to the point where they wish they could get away with avenging the slings and arrows they are obliged to silently endure.  But opting to repress their violent impulses, and the frustration caused by doing this can gradually manifest itself in other ways that contribute to personality dysfunctions. Women develop tension headaches; men become impotent in the bed.  And pity all the poor cats whose owners come home and kick them after a work place humiliation has angered them. Meoooow.   Think how much better off these uptight people would be if they'd watch a gangland character in the Boardwalk TV series shoot up a speakeasy!   

 

The message sent by the non-violent protests during the civil rights movement was that great sacrifice and will power are required to abstain from the natural desire to strike out at those who are abusing and mistreating you.  Not doing so makes your cause noble and notable and brave because it is a sign of strength to refrain from doing what is the normal thing to do. It also exposes the aggressors as being uncivilized.

 

H. Rap Brown, the notorious civil rights radical,  once declared that "violence is as American as cherry pie."  Indeed, America is a violent power hungry, war mongering nation. Not unlike the dynasties in Game of Thrones.

[Cynique]

Oops.  Looks like I was trying to bury The Undertaker before his time.  My grandson tells me that the pro-wrestler who just died was Ultimate Warrior, not The Undertaker.  Sorry. 

[CDBurns]

Yep, that was the Ultimate Warrior. He had just signed a contract to get back into wrestling and was entered into the WWE HOF. Don't ask why i know this, I plead the Fif. Your shift into a discussion on non-violence in regard to violence as art with the ability to create catharsis, is interesting and worthy of a book itself.

 

I tend to think that in the black community violence as art, creates more violence. I think the breakdown of the black community was pushed along by West Gangasta rap and imagery that began with the film Colors and was given it's most attractive and sturdy building block in Boyz N The Hood and Menace 2 Society. This was reinforced with the most attractive looking gangbanger lifestyle created by Death Row.

 

I guess I need to explain: In Menace 2 Society you had one of the most handsome young actors in Black Hollywood portray an out of control psychotic killer in O Dawg (Larenz Tate). Girls loved him, boys wanted to be him. Likewise with Boyz. It wasn't Laurence Fishburne's role that stood out was Ice Cube's Doughboy role that was the most compelling. I think John Singleton made a very big mistake by giving Cube the last words in the film and fading him away instead of actually allowing the Doughboy character to be shown physically being murdered. The same with the O Dawg character. At the same time, Snoop Dogg had the song that solidified his career in Deep Cover. You talk about a systematic integration of LA Gang Culture into the Psyche of Black America. Within years you had Crips and Bloods in Little Rock Arkansas, and as far away as New York!!!

 

This introduction of gang culture throroughly wiped out the LA Peace Treaty and the Same Gang movement and then removed the attention from East Cost Hip-Hop which tended to have more variety conscious lyrics. Remember when The Chronic was released so was Digable Planets album Refutations. Talk about two music forms that balanced each other out in Hip-Hop. That was the last year that two albums garnered both critical and commercial success that was from two different extremes in Hip Hop. Since then the West Coast dominated the culture with gang culture and the Hyphy movement and then the South has taken over since then with the Trap rap/Drug culture. New York hasn't really had a huge voice in Hip-Hop which has coincided with the neutralizing of the power of Hip-Hop, save a few emcees like Common, Talib Kweli and Mos Def (Yasin Bey) and even those artists didn't get mainstream radio play. Actually it took Dave Chappelle to really give those artists a bigger platform (kind of).

 

All of this is to say that the cartoonish violence in Game of Thrones and even Boardwalk Empire, the sex in Californication and murder in Dexter have very little effect on Black America or America in general. It is allowing a purge, but I think it is simply entertainment because the people watching tend to understand that this is television. In Black culture however, the sex, trap rap, glorification of commodities is taken more literally which translates into the actions that are carried out in Chicago, LA and other places on a daily basis. Is poverty the underlying cause of crime and murder, yes, but if the images in our community were less about drugs and needs, I do think we would have less murder and mayhem.

[Troy]

Hey Chris I trend to agree with your assessment completely.  I resonates because it mirrors my personal experiences and observations.  Given our different backgrounds I believe this lends a bit of credence to your assessment. 

 

"...in the black community violence as art, creates more violence."

 

The question is why?  I suspect it is partially because those images dominate the popular culture.  If you would have told me the most popular and commercially successful rapper to emerge from Public Enemy would be the drug-abusing clown Flavor Flav I would have said you were crazy.  

 

I clearly remember the emergence of Gansta Rap.  It really became acceptable, no manly, to think of women as bitches and hoes.  The more you could "get" the better a man you were.  The "Pimp" and "Thug" archetype were what brothers aspired to as rap artists like Snoop Dogg and Eazy -E rose to prominence.  As you implied the ladies all started to want a least a little thuggishness in their men. 

 

Today some of the most popular music is what is actually played in strip clubs.  If is perfectly acceptable to use the "N-word" in popular music today why?  I was listening to the Rap Station on Sirrius the other day and EVERY single song used the N-word?!

In previous generations we had love songs.  We have conscious music groups like EWF, Stevie Wonder were popular.  Today who do we celebrate and give awards to?  We have music awards and we can't be sure if our most popular artists are going to start fighting each other or do something bizarre on the stage.

 

Of course there is good music but if take effort to find and few support it, so it is rarely commercially viable. 

 

I watched the season opener of Games last night.  Not much happened as they are setting the stage for subsequent episodes.  There are so many threads and characters it is an effort just to figure out what is going on.  I don't remember the cannibals are they new?

[Cynique]

Ice-T comes to my mind when I think of Rappers who flipped; going from a cop-hating Rapper to playing a law enforcement character on a TV series. He is a classic example of a role player who switched personas and easily made the transistion.  Violence as art certainly does not benefit its audience, and it obviously does not hinder its performers - unless they get shot. 

 

In the inner city universe, gansta rappers are like anti-matter.  They neutralize the positive by glamorizing the negative.  Anti matter is apparently a natural phenomenon.  Bad  exists because good is no fun. 

 

Far be it for me to try and explain Game of Thrones to anyone.  I just watch it and for some reason am captivated by it. New plot lines are being introduced seemingly.

[CDBurns]

The cannibals are new because they are being grouped by the people on the outside of the wall to prepare an attack on the Watch and Jon Snow. Opening episodes have so much work to do they are very rarely as engaging as the rest of the season. They are laying out the upcoming issues of course.

 

The Roots had a song named "It's In The Music" that speaks perfectly to what you are saying Troy. I've always written that when our parents and the previous generation danced, they danced to My Girl by the Temptations. The song was a beautiful ode to women. Today women dance to Ludacris' "I Got Hoes" or Trina's "Baddest Bitch". Every song uses the N word so liberally that you forget if the song actually has a point outside of diminishing the status of Blacks. If people are willingly seduced by the negative songs and feel that is commonplace, then it becomes common.

 

Ice T is interesting, but Ice T is actually one of the most positive rappers ever. While he had his Pimp persona the majority of his songs were about the dangers of street life. In a sense he was a real reporter telling the stories taking place and he didn't really glorify as much as he wrote the narrative and told people of the outcome. All people saw was Cop Killer which was in the twilight of his career and an attempt at going a different direction in a changing Hip-Hop culture. Cop Killer was and is a relevant song when you consider we have Fruitvale Station right now. Ice T is actually doing documentaries on Hip-Hop now and calling today's rappers to task which is what elders should do. The problem is he isn't being given any real attention and young rappers are considering him the angry grandpa. See the ice T vs Soulja Boy beef.

 

Troy there is fantastic music coming out of this generation Jose James, Gregory Porter to name a couple, but they have to go abroad to earn a living because Black people aren't the primary buyers of their music. It's the same with rappers who are attempting to say something. They won't be played on BET or MTV. In order to get any range on television you have to have cable and get VH1 Soul.

 

I once made my students go home and do a survey on music. I asked them to watch the VH1 top 20 music videos and then watch the BET Top 10 videos and tell me what type of songs were played. While it was short lived it was one of the most important teaching moments I had. On VH1 (white music was a diverse range of dance and party songs mixed with clever love songs celebrating the fear of falling for someone or the joy of meeting someone.  The top 10 songs on BET were drug influenced, ass shaking odes to the female body, braggadocio about what I have and own, and false female empowerment songs where the women were wearing next to nothing saying they were independent. What was the message? White people are a diverse group with music taste that range from rap, rock to pop, while Black people only have fancy cars, hoes and drugs with false identities.

 

White people can separate themselves from their art, blacks can't because our art is so thoroughly woven into our DNA that we are our art and we become what our art is displaying to the mainstream. We do not have the privilege of anonymity and there is the danger in how we deliver our art to the world.

[Troy]

That was an informatve post Chris -- thanks.  I was not familiar with Jose James.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGkxBiJ8TCw

 

Another sister Mel that has posted here from time to time introduced me to Gregory Ports about a year ago.  I really liked his song Real Good Hands. 

 

I found this on Youtube.  It is an album that I was not previously familiar with -- I guess it is new.  I'm listening to it as I write this.  The first cut sounds good, I'll probably buy the album (even through I could easily download the whole thing from Youtube).

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_3FPTgdkuY

[CDBurns]

I've bought GP for every person I know. I'm beginning to do the same with Jose James who is one of the dopest young artists out right now. On Gregory Porter it also helps that he is an Aztec (San Diego State) just had to throw that in there, lol. Liquid Spirit is the new album by Porter. It's a shame that these guys don't earn any radio play here in the US.

[Troy]

Chris if you or I were in charge of what was played on the radio GP would be played. 

[Cynique]

How do you classify this music?  Sounds kinda like Jazz fusion to me. 

[CDBurns]

Both are Jazz artists, as signified by their record label Blue Note. However, Jose James is kind of blurring the lines of genre. He flirts with jazz, kisses r &b, sleeps with neosoul, and cheats with Hip-Hop and electronic. These are real artists. I happen to think this current movement of young Black artists is one of the greatest things to happen in music. It's a quiet revolution. Look up Robert Glasper Experiment and you will see and hear what I'm saying. Add to that list The Foreign Exchange, and Gary Clark Jr. and there is a real rebirth taking place. The problem is it isn't reaching the radio at all. While Jay Z and Beyonce make 5 million on mediocre music, these artists are constantly on the road to remain, well, artists.

 

Cynique when I hear Jazz Fusion I immediately think Herbie Hancock and he is definitely a major influence on James and Glasper, but Gregory Porter seems to be a throwback. He's a male Cassandra Wilson and I love it.

[Troy]

Chris you should cobble together some music recommendations (actually you recommended enough to go with already) that I could publish in the website--maybe I can even pay you something or barter in return.  I of course would doll it up with buy links album covers etc, etc.

[CDBurns]

That's an idea, and something that I've learned to take advantage of with Amazon Associates. I think I've got a pretty good ear and I listen to a little of everything so I can work on that. This Kickstarter and the new office space is pulling me away from a lot right now though so I will get on it.

[Troy]

Dude take your time we are not going anywhere and I've been in the dark about good new music so long another week or month or two will make little difference.  (for Cynique)