Love of violence

I feel as if I am living in a story by Flannery O'Connor. 
Children are killing children on our streets and in our schools.  The President of the United States draws up a list of people to kill;  he has become what some call a 'desk murderer.'  Or, perhaps, we should save that term for the moral robots who execute his orders.

We have progressed from killing people we can't see to killing people  where they live on land we can't see.  Blow up ten or twenty people 5000 miles away, sign out at five o'clock, go home and watch TV with the family.  Just another day's work.

I watched a highly rated and honored movie called American Hustle.  A depressing experience.  A story of greed, deception, fraud, violence, betrayal, dishonor, and more.  The end was no different from the beginning.  If there was redemption in this movie it came to those who didn't get what they wanted but went on doing what they do anyway.

A good movie is hard to find.

Recently I have  heard or read someone remark that 'We are not in Cleaver country anymore."  This is said approvingly.
 
What can one expect?  After all we have prime time TV shows whose main character is a serial killer, another who is a cannibal, another who is a crooked politician, another who is a gangster.  The level of violence and bloodletting increases with each passing year.

I expect someday to see a cannibal with a show on a cooking channel.  He will show the Desperate Housewife how to cook her husband's liver and enjoy it with a little wine and fava beans.

I live in a culture where exhibitionism is called performance art, where vulgarity is called edgy behavior.

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