Our Violent, Drugged "Society" by James Jaeger

I don't know how many times I have posted something like this post over the years, but here I go again - reminded of the culture of violence we live in that has produced yet three (3) MORE killings in our nation's schools in just one (1) week! Abominable!

I maintain that the endless violence and dysfunctional situations portrayed in Hollywood-based feature motion pictures since I was a kid – the 1950s and 1960s – to the present has escalated so horrendously that most kids today are experiencing an increasingly blurred line between what’s moral and what’s not. Human life, as portrayed in the movies, is little more to some of them than protoplasm to be blown away in an action picture. Hollywood studios, producers and writers have so inundated the culture with violence and gun play, it’s not only adulterating the kids’ ethics, but restimulating the population of the mentally insane/unstable who now wander the nation’s streets or quietly live next door.

My father used to be a psychiatrist in charge of the violent male building at the Norristown State Mental Hospital. In the late 1950’s there were thousands of mental cases institutionalized and under his watch. Today, if you visit Norristown, and I have, there are only a few hundred under care. Where are all now? Most of them are out on the streets (or living next door) doped up on Fluoxetine, Prozac or Phenobarb and watching violent Hollywood movies. If you ask me, this is a recipe for disaster, an explosive combination -- and it’s no wonder we are now experiencing what’s happening in society.

I would be very interested in seeing a medical report on the past 100 school shootings to ascertain what percentage of the killers, whether adults or children, were on pharmaceuticals when they went on their rampage. I will bet the percentage is significant. But note the media doesn’t come anywhere close to reporting on this aspect of the situation because so much of their advertising revenue comes from the multi-billion pharmaceutical companies.

I don’t know what the solution is as far as the mentally ill, but the movie industry isn’t helping the situation by endlessly exploiting violence just to make a buck. In my book this is grossly irresponsible and they should be held accountable for some part of the culture of violence they are helping create.

At this point, after some 100 school shootings and over 250 kids ruthlessly murdered, I have to seriously question whether a parent really loves their child if they permit him or her to watch too much TV or movies. I will also go so far as to say I seriously wonder how much they love their children when they are willing to take the risk of sending them to public school, or even private school when the home schooling alternative is available. Or look at it this way: home schooling is the ONLY way to go, if one is too “busy” or lazy to continue to do nothing about the movie industry’s irresponsibility or the media’s conflict of interest with the drug companies and the child-killers that use their products.