Horror

XKCD comic #2076, "Horror Movies 2"
XKCD “Horror Movies 2”

I tend to agree with the person without a hat. I’d much rather watch something uplifting.

I think many of us are hypocrites, calling ISIS barbarians for their videos of beheadings, and then watching slasher flicks. It’s all spectacle. Beheadings of royalty in the French Revolution were public entertainment, as were lynchings in the United States. I think it desensitizes us.

I recall Col. Kurtz in Apocolypse Now: “The horror … the horror,” and learning how PTSD can truly mess you up. I wonder what kind of effects our indulgences into horror have on our society, a culture that worships violence?