CEJ #4: Opinion

2/12/13

The 'Die Hard' Quandary

(Nocera, Joe)

"The New York Times"

2/11/13

Opinion

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/12/opinion/nocera-the-die-hard-quandry.html?ref=opinion

It is often debated whether the viewing of violent content causes aggression. As many people know and are excited for, the new 'Die Hard' movie is coming out in a few days, and as with many popular series, there is going to be an in-theater marathon of all of the previous movies culminating with the new movie's release. The marathon will take 12 hours and include five 'Die Hard' movies in total. Those 12 hours will be action and violence packed showing various types of machine guns and general aggression between the characters. These movies have a very real side to them these days because of how much spotlight and attention has been focused on gun control and the pain that can be caused by those guns. Some people want to start banning rifles and such but its argued that that banning would lead to other banning and all of a sudden there would be no weapons left to use, but others stick by the Second Amendment. This relates to violent media because if it causes aggression, and then the aggressive movie watchers may go and get an unregulated gun that they could cause serious trouble with. People do not want to ban violent media though, because of the First Amendment and the problem with not knowing how much to ban and how eventually nothing may be allowed. These issues are often debated and are problems we will eventually have to face. In conclusion, the author noted that the movie theaters did have a back up plan because of the chance of violence in their viewers. 

This article relates to many things in my life right now. As the author said, it relates to gun control debates and citizens' rights; it relates to what the class is reading in Ender's Game as well. In Ender's Game, Ender gets very angry and his emotions are overstimulated when he plays video games. It cultivates his already aggressive disposition and takes it to a level that is less than healthy. In real life, people can be as bad as Ender or worse; people can get a gun and go on a shooting rampage. Granted, that does not often happen, but it is still an issue that could be lessened. With this in mind, I think the article did have a bias, though I think that being an opinion article it is supposed to. To me, the author seemed to be writing as a concerned parent, believing that violent media is evil and makes kids awful. He even mentioned how he was informed by the psychologist Craig Anderson that it is proven that watching a head get pecked by a woodpecker in a cartoon causes accelerated aggression. I am not a parent, but I agree with what the author is saying because it seems that violence does promote violence, just as peace promotes peace. If I was a parent, I would not want my kids to be shooting each other in video games and watching their favorite characters be blown to pieces in a movie. The author's opinions make sense and seem very logical overall. Though I am sure the new 'Die Hard' is good, I don't think I will be seeing it anytime soon.