From post ona discussion forum, fall of 2009

There are the warnings about wikipedia which are valid, like don't trust it unless it comes with a footnote reference from a good solid source...And there are the positive like "you can still, often find good information on it"...but there's another thing wikipedia can do for you, I've discovered, besides helping with finding some references on this method, recipe, health issue, etc...namely in analyzing our culture...and looking into some ugly parts of it, without getting the 'ugly' all over you. I speak of...reading the detailed (often very detailed) plot summaries from horror films and other films which encapsulate a lot of what's messed up in our culture.

I've never had the stomach for, nor, for that matter, any interest in, watching 'gore' films...so haven't gone to them..but in the last few years I've read plot summaries from the first 5 or 6 or 7 installments of various horror series...I do this maybe once a year now...this time around, I just read the plot summaries from Saw parts I, II, and III and skimmed IV, V and VI... Obviously doing so lets you do one thing: let those of us who are squeamish, or who object on moral and other grounds, or both, learn much detail about the film...but as it turns out, you can learn much more..you can sort of take a view that's detailed on the one hand while "removed" enough from the gore so as not to have nearly the same emotional gut reaction,so you can really look at it with open eyes; you are protected, to a large extent,not just from the gross-out or from the de-sensitization, but also you don't lose the forest from the trees.

Initially I got lost in the trees: so much detail...but after reading a few plot summaries of the first few Saws (or last year, I think it was Friday the 13ths I read the detailed plot summaries of) you lose track of the details but "the forest" comes into view... for me at least, the underlying illness or illnesses of our culture we live in, is what came into view. On the one hand, one can analyze the sick nature of our culture, what we accept, what we're bombarded with (in less extreme form in other parts of the media,but still there in other parts)..on another level, one can think about corporate capitalism willing to do anything, create movies about anything, no matter how pathological, antisocial, harmful, sociopathic, etc, just to make a buck. On a third level, how instead of enjoying nature, company, music, art, philosophy (or doing good activism like organic agriculture, community groups, etc) we're herded to sit in the dark isolated from the dozens or hundreds of fellow humans sitting right next to us, as we stare at a screen. On a fourth level, even ignoring all the "Analysis" of the other levels, it gives me more compassion and sympathy to the 'typical' American as I realize and sense more about what they are exposed to..things readers of this group are probably, on average, exposed to much less, and much less often.

I was going to try to list some parts of the "forest" that's easy to lose sight of among all the trees of all the twists and turns of the plot, things like, "don't trust other people because anyone, anywhere, could turn on you..not only turn on you,but kill you, not only kill you, but torture or mutilate you..." and "there's no escaping the competing against others for who will survive" (the idea of cooperation is there, but only in small marginal ways) and "use violence to solve (or violence with clever cunning deception etc) and there are others that come to mind but maybe hear what others say before trying to make my list longer or more complete...I do know that if we want real democracy and change in this world though, we have to work together and have solidarity, empathy, but the culture encourages "don't trust the other person" and "each man (or each woman) for themselves!" and the horror movies are, for the most part, no exception...

A lot of depressing thoughts but at least for me the positives are identifying more clearly, what it is that needs changing in our culture..that and the positive feeling (I was not joking) of empathy and even feeling sorry for the 'typical American' who gets exposed to this kind of thing (or other versions that are less extreme, but still bad enough, in the violent TV programs) much more often than some of us, and I can only imagine how much more stress it adds to their life...as if economic uncertainty, downsizing, deceptive advertising and "gotcha!" clauses in your health insurance, in your purchased goods and services, in so much else, aren't enough stress, this kind of cultural dimension in so much on TV and films adds yet more stress to the mix...not a good thing if we want to encourage more fellow Americans and other world citizens (who are also our brothers and sisters even if citizens of other countries) to join us in making the world a better place..

Maybe I'm over-sensitive not having owned a TV for almost all of my adult life..but I know I've heard others more 'mainstream' than me express dismay at these kinds of parts of our films and TV and culture...Your thoughts Kevin and Donna? Others?