Violence has a double standard
I recently told an acquaintance that I couldn’t wait to watch this past, and final, season of ‘The Sopranos,’ America’s favorite crime family.
The acquaintance, somewhat, chided me for watching and enjoying, ‘The Sopranos.’ It glorifies violence and breaking the law. It’s a bad example for our young people ‘ even adults, he announced. True enough, ‘The Sopranos’ isn’t for everyone, as it depicts sex, infidelity, betrayal, murder, narcotics trafficking, loan sharking, and about any other anti-social behavior you care to name.
Well, if I’m wrong for watching ‘The Sopranos,’ so is a good portion of the U.S. adult population, as it is one of most viewed TV series in the history of the tube, the show and its actors having won numerous Emmy Awards. For that matter, take ‘CSI: Miami,’ where Horatio Caine and his team of high-tech forensic sleuths, with millions of viewers watching, solve grisly crimes on a weekly basis, complete with tanned, curvaceous, scantily clad babes suggestively promenading around.
Oh, so you’re one of those who doesn’t watch ‘The Sopranos,’ ‘CSI: Miami,’ and similar shows. I bet there’s a good chance, though, that you enjoy watching high school, pro, and college football. And there is no denying that football is a violent sport, basically, big strong men brutalizing opposing team members in an effort to either take possession of the pigskin from the opposing team, or, if in possession, run it across a goal line.
In fact, school-age kids are encouraged to pursue football because it teaches them to better work with a group instead of being an individualist. What about boxing? The objective of this popular sport is a man/woman beating up or knocking out an opponent. Oprah Winfrey is known to attend high-profile boxing matches. Anyone care to say anything derogatory about Oprah? That’s what I thought.
And there’s Vince McMahan and his ever-so-popular WWE/World Wrestling Entertainment. I wager that a good portion of the American public knows more about wrestlers Triple H and ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin than they do King David and his wife Bathsheba of the Old Testament in the Holy Bible. Of course, King David and Bathsheba’s story is not one of absolute purity and Godliness. How so? King David observed Bathsheba bathing in the nude, and was so overcome with what he saw that he had Bathsheba’s husband ‘ a soldier in King David’s army ‘ sent to the front lines of combat so he would be killed, which he was, and King David could have Bathsheba for his very own, which he did. It doesn’t get much more violent than that.
Personally, I thoroughly enjoy ‘The Sopranos,’ ‘CSI: Miami,’ WWE, boxing, and football. And it’s hard for me to imagine that a vast majority of Americans do not watch, and enjoy, at least one of the mentioned shows, or something similar.
Still, another extremely popular sport these days is UFC/Ultimate Fight Championship and WEC/World Extreme Cagefighting. With the UFC and WEC, the contestants fight bare knuckle and, with the exception of a few rules, pretty much can go at each other as ferociously as their abilities will allow.
In the May 21, 2007 issue of ESPN magazine, I read an interesting story about WEC fighter Chuck Liddell, considered by many to be the best pound-for-pound fighter in UFC/WEC history. I feel this extract from that edifying story best sums up ‘ what I feel is ‘ America’s hypocritical, double standard toward violence: ‘He [Chuck Liddell] doesn’t derive pleasure from inflicting pain, and the fact that you enjoy watching him do it says a hell of a lot more about you than about him.’
Mike Vinson is a Warren County columnist. He can be reached at [email protected].