Article 2

The article begins by telling the reader that Harvey Weinstein reportedly went on to CNN with host Piers Morgan, and promised to stay away from the violent films that he is known for being involved in. You learn later in the article that most of the violent films he is involved in are when he works with Quentin Tarantino. The writer suggests that the reason he says this is because Weinstein is beating people to the punch for calling him a hypocrite. Weinstein is involved in a movie that exemplifies his support for gun-control even though he has been involved in such gruesome films. The writer then dives right into gun-control issues and violence in movies’ association with crime. The article addresses the arguments for both sides for both arguments. First the article addresses the fact that even though the studies are out there, it is just an unclear perception that violence in media causes aggression. It states that even at the end of the meta-research project “Report of the Media Violence Commission”, the conclusion contradicts the research. The conclusion includes the line, “One conclusion appears clear—extreme conclusions are to be avoided”. The writer then continues on with gun-control and different statistics for states with higher regulations and lower regulations and their correlation with crime rate. It is added that the crime rate now is close to the same as that of the 60’s which we all think of as rainbows and butterflies. The writer concludes that if we can’t determine if guns are the cause of higher crime then we cannot determine that violence in the media is the cause for violence on the streets. The writer states that violent movies are much like whiskey and fried chicken, use moderation.

                Honestly, I really hate articles like this. I have a hard time keeping up with the writer. The writer tends to jump around and I feel like it is an excuse to show how intelligent the writer is. I had to look up a couple of different terms like “mea culpa”. I really don’t use latin phrases in my everyday life. But onto the subject matter. Although I do not like the dense sarcasm, I can agree with most of what the writer said. I do believe that we have to monitor the amount of time that we devote to violent movies, although I personally love them. I think the responsibility falls into the hands of the individual. There are all these debates, opinions, and research and no solid truth. There is no large scale links in my opinion. The people that do the shooting or set off explosives in the street or kill in a mass scale, are very sick in the head and if they had wanted to fix themselves there would have been people there to help. I can admit sometimes my mind goes to a pretty dark place. You have to snap out of it, you can dwell in there and allow the darkness to take over. I believe the better route is to remember your morals. I cannot tell you how many times I wanted to become a masked vigilante and take over the justice system in my city. I cannot do that. Also, I believe that we all have a movie or book that has disturbed us, which shows some hidden part that we have locked away. I cannot really pinpoint the reasoning behind mine. For me the movie Black Swan, that movie just disturbed me. I have never watched it again. A couple years ago, there was a lot of hype over Human Centipede. I watched maybe twenty minutes of it and was appalled and just shut it off. Never even thought about trying it again. I think the responsibility is within the individual. We all can do great things, whether it be for good or for evil. If you ever are getting that involved into a show then you have lost touch with reality and only you can tell when you need help.