The Evolution of Violence

The hand that held the reed

Was no stranger to the sword.

Noble sons of Greece, Sophocles, or

His brother in arms, Euripides,

Knew and claimed that war was

The father of all things, and

Their words, an eagle’s wings,

Slice the air above us still.

Bodies maimed, queens hanged,

Kings blinded; horrors as real as the

Look in an innocent child's eyes,

As, for the first time, he tastes

Fear in his own mind, were

Wrapped in the soft cushion of

Words that poured and flowed

Sacred as the blood of sacrificial birds!

Profanity, undenied yet loathed, was

Kept hidden behind the curtain of

Decency and the thin veil of sanity.

We have butchers for poets now,

Slashing, skinning, carving men up alive

Splashing soiled canvases with grime

Howling, stomping, no reason, no rhyme.

Numbed to the core with endless gore,

Eyesore upon eyesore upon eyesore.

It’s the language of beasts that screams, and

Beams at the sight of freshly torn flesh that steams.

Oh heavens, how low man has fallen!

What of beauty, goodness, and purity?

Lost, forgotten, discarded, stolen!

Author's Note

Recently, the reveling in the depiction of senseless, pointless, bestial violence in media -
especially film - has reached such leveles that, in my opinion, is sub-human and demonic. It wasn't always like this. The further we go back in time, it seems, the less the focus was on the gory details of violence. Rather, it (violence) was a thread in the fabric of the narrative and not the main attraction. In ancient Greek theater, it was not allowed, for example, to show violence on stage. It was referred to in dialogue, but not pushed in the face of the audience. What is gained and what is lost with this shift?

Reviews

[emmajoygreen]

Tragically the media and money grabbers provide what it thinks the population wants. It - the afore-mentioned devils, feed games at accessible prices to the youngsters who can't possible go without them because all their mates have them!

Violence enough shown on TV News programmes and on-line this and that, etc'. The sight of blood and knives appears to excite these days - motor racing, boxing, etc.. whilst dangerous in physical and mental disfavour are by personal choice. It would be thumbs down not to have the bull in the arena, but then so is war and Heaven forbid that game of chance ever disappearing! (that's as cynical I can get)

Yours is a wise and would-be hopeful opinion. Give people the choice of poison or a glass of something sat looking at the sun setting or children playing or lovers's hugging would more than likely be the last scene most would like to see before their long sleeep.

I'm with you til the tides doggy paddle into a sweet back float under a gentle, eternal sun and moon

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Much like the movies...the old horror movies had more suspenseful build up and then showed less of the violence. Now, every horror film emulates Friday the 13th....how much gore can we take.
And yes, poetry is starting to be so blatant in its language, which often is not poetic at all.
I think it demeans our genre. I find it sad when we drift away from the implied and just rely on the gruesome straightforwardness that just makes a statement and finds the reader cringing.
j.

[John the Baptist]

Indeed, the media hold little back. Of course, it is only reflecting the outer world, which now has multiple bloody conflicts going simultaneously.

[Relic]

It's unfortunate, but violence has always been apart of America. In the forties it was serials (cliffhangers) in the movies. Each episode had a fight scene, explosions, and death was hardly considered if the bad guy lost.

Cartoons on TV had their innocent violence. And now rap and hip hop music with its reference to guns, sex, and revenge are all told through belligerent cursing....something unfortunately now mandatory. Country and pop see it as well.

Violence and death have always been with us. The sixties saw a lot of it. Think assassinations, The manson murders, Viet Nam on TV. You get the gist.

Movies are indeed violent and filled with sex scenes everywhere. We are in a sorry state no matter where you live, I guess.

Nice writing.

[Joss Jeffrey]

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[Betty Hermelee]

Dear Laz
I completely agree with you, especially in film...I have to surf the streaming to find a good old romantic or comedic movie, not one with demons and dragons and blood!!! It's also true in other types of media as well...I don't think it's going away any time soon either.... thank you for commenting on this subject!
Warmly, B

[Fabian G. Franklin]

The desensitization process has left many kids not knowing the difference between reality and virtual reality...the games have become their world where murder, theft and torture are just part of the game. Games like Halo and Grand Theft Auto promote violence in the extreme. And the experts wonder why kids become killers... it's because it's what they were taught and acclimated to accept and do without any connection to reality. Everything on TV is related to either sex, violence or dedicated to the lie of racial inequality when real life (at least the life I have experienced) is nothing like that. We teach our children to become rapists, murderers and victims instead of empowering them with self-respect, honor, dignity and learning social skills outside of "social media". But what we put in is mostly what we will get out...garbage in, garbage out. But the narrative has been shoved down the throats of youth in a complete indoctrination of desensitization without any thought given to the results or effects of society as a whole. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. But it's really sad when impressionable children are left to pay the price of indifferent (so-called) adults.

[Laz K.]

You sum it up very well, Fabian. Society is being ground to dust between extremely far-out ideologies. Just one example: no one could escape the big "scandal" about the new Disney Snow White" movie. Woke stuff the political right hated on, and tried to balance out by hailing another movie called "Working Man." This latter was an equally low-vibrational, ultra violent flick. Both films are twisted, perverse, and have nothing much to offer.

[Fabian G. Franklin]

I became disenchanted with Hollywood long ago. And Walt Disney is turning in his grave. Rarely do I find a movie I like anymore. I watch a great many documentary films on places around the globe though.