What Sex and Killing Have in Common

In 1974 there was a movie "Death Wish." Eventually there were four sequels over a period of twenty years. At the time I was taking some psychology courses at a local university and I was subscribing to a magazine Psychology Today. In one issue there was an article on the reaction of audiences across the country when the hero killed his first bad guy, they stood and cheered.

 

The film was disliked by many critics due to it advocating vigilantism and unlimited punishment to criminals. The book upon which the movie was loosely based denounced vigilantism, whereas the film embraced the notion. It was seen as echoing a growing mood in the United States as crime rose during that time.

 

Hollywood is great at making war and killing seem simple and strait forward. It makes the watcher believe that people kill each other because they are told, because it is kill or be killed, the enemy is hated or whatever. Hollywood tries to make us believe that all soldiers shoot at each other, attempting to hit and kill each other. While in some situations there may be some truth in the matter, it is mostly wrong.

 

A book to read on the subject is :On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society" by Dave Grossman.

 

When most people talk about killing, they are like virgins talking about sex. You can talk about it all day, you can fully understand the mechanics involved but when the time comes there is so much more involved than the person thought. As with sex until you kill you have no clue as to how you will react. I find the number of Christians who claim they are ready to kill to protect their property curious. I find them odd and far from being Christian. We have at least a couple of elders in waiting in that category.  

 

A look at history may shed some light on the subject. In World War Two, studies have shown that only 15-20 percent of the soldiers fired at the enemy. That is one in five soldiers actually shooting at a Nazi when he saw one. While this rate may have increased in desperate situations, in most combat situations soldiers were reluctant to kill each other.

In Korea, the rate of soldiers unwilling to fire on the enemy decreased and fifty five percent of the soldiers fired at the enemy. In Vietnam, this rate increased to about ninety five percent but this doesn't mean they were trying to hit the target. In fact it usually took around fifty-two thousand bullets to score one kill in regular infantry units!

If one studies history one will find that man is often unwilling to kill his fellow man and the fighter finds it very traumatic when he has to do so.

The solution is not to control weapons we need to understand why people are willing to kill. Millions if not billions of dollars are spent each year on advertising to influence the way consumers think but no one believes watching violent movies and television programs as well as playing violent video games influences us or our children.

John Jenkins
865-803-8179  cell
Gatlinburg, TN


Email: jrjenki@gmail.com
Blogs: http://littlepigeon.blogspot.com/
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