NationStates Jolt Archive

What I hate about modern-day America is that everyone(or at least crazy Soccer Moms, certain senators, and the elderly) blames the rise in violence on music, games, etc, thinking that only recently violent songs were invented.

Wrong.

In fact, they've been around forever! Of course, those crazy Soccer Mom's won't listen to reason. "It's because of these new violent videogames!" they say. "It's because of that new-fangled Gangstah-rap!" they say. Of course, there were songs from when they were children that we just as violent:

Maxwell's Silver Hammer (http://www.rstolley.net/Schekina/Maxwell'sSilverHammer.mp3).

You might say that isn't as bad as modern day songs, but really, if a song about a deranged boy that smashes in the head of his girlfriend, teacher, and judge who tries him(as well as others) with a silver hammer isn't bad, what is?

All I can say is:
You want someone to blame for the violent kids?
Look at their parents and their environment, not whatever happens to be the lastest scapegoat.

something a little older

Pretty Polly

Oh Polly, Pretty Polly, come go along with me.
Polly, Pretty Polly, come go along with me.
Before we get married some pleasures to see.

.......

Oh Willie, Oh Willie, I’m afraid to of your ways.
Willie, Oh Willie, I’m afraid of your ways.
The way you’ve been acting, you’ll lead me astray.

.......

Oh Polly, Pretty Polly, your guess is about right.
Polly, Pretty Polly, your guess is about right.
I dug on your grave the best part of last night.

She knelt down before him pleading for her life.
She knelt down before him pleading for her life.
Please let me be a single girl if I can’t be your wife.

He stabbed her in the heart and her heart’s blood did flow.
He stabbed her in the heart and her heart’s blood did flow.
And into the grave Pretty Polly did go.

.......

He went down to the jailhouse and what did he say.
He went down to the jailhouse and what did he say.
I killed Pretty Polly and tried to get away.

Oh gentlemen and ladies, I bid you farewell.
Oh gentlemen and ladies, I bid you farewell.
For killing Pretty Polly my soul will go to hell.

http://www.radford.edu/~bluegrass/songs/prettypolly.html

Amen, TLS

And as too the whole "video games make children into axe-murdering maniacs" claim, in the 50's people said the same thing about comic books

Amen, TLS

And as too the whole "video games make children into axe-murdering maniacs" claim, in the 50's people said the same thing about comic books

In the fifties they said "video games make children into comic books"?

ughh... I hate morons
to clarify for those of us who are either picky or have 7 brain cells:

1950's-Comic books make children into violent maniacs
2000's-Video games make children into violent maniacs

ughh... I hate morons

Italics used to signify the making of a supposedly humorous statement.

EDIT: That aside: does the comics code still operate in the US with respect to comics targetted at the younger market?

Italics used to signify the making of a supposedly humorous statement.

EDIT: That aside: does the comics code still operate in the US with respect to comics targetted at the younger market?

Not too sure. I've seen more and more "violent" comics as of late, though.

Italics used to signify the making of a supposedly humorous statement.

EDIT: That aside: does the comics code still operate in the US with respect to comics targetted at the younger market?
forgive me, I am used to people with 7 brain cells, I live in a one party area of the country, with no intelligent debate whatsoever.

Im not a comic book expert, i couldnt answer your other question

forgive me, I am used to people with 7 brain cells, I live in a one party area of the country, with no intelligent debate whatsoever.
Not a problem.

Im not a comic book expert, i couldnt answer your other question

Nor am I, and to engage seriously with the point you made earlier - the fact that a new bugbear has been seized upon as a 'corrupting' force doesn't prove that comics (or rock'n'roll or whatever) weren't actually 'corrupting' forces.

THere were also those old TV serials like the Lone Ranger. Not only did they make children crazed gun-toting people but it made them crazed gun-toting people who were indifferent to the rights of the natives of North America. (It really was Tonto who one was the genious behind all the Lone Rangers plans).

For God's sake, think of the children!

Has anyone mentioned 'Mack the Knife'? Guess how old it is and wasn't he one of gramma's favorites?

No, violent songs are nothing new. Neither are axe murderers. Neither are crazy people. Neither are violent plays/cinema/public spectacles.

If you want to take it back far enough, you all do realize that the average person during the Middle Ages would wait around for hours to watch an execution because it was something entertaining (entertaining in the sense that it disrupted the daily boredom of serf life), right? Also Shakespeare’s plays were performed in front of crowds of people, including impressionable little English peasants and their children, and Shakespeare used animal blood and gore in his fight scenes to make them more realistic. Imagine that…

"Have at you!"

*Stabs*

"Uggh.."

*Falls over*

*Someone offstage tosses some pig entrails and blood onto the ‘wounded’ man as he falls*

Mmmm, delicious…

Anyway, why is it that little English peasant boys and peasant girls never became murderers? Perhaps because the exposure to violence – real violence, including graphic human deaths – did not harm their psyche in such a horrid manner as one would assume. Perhaps then modern critics of violent music and media are taking things a bit out of proportion; I mean we aren’t even exposed to actual deaths like our ancestors were.

Anyway, why is it that little English peasant boys and peasant girls never became murderers? Perhaps because the exposure to violence – real violence, including graphic human deaths – did not harm their psyche in such a horrid manner as one would assume. Perhaps then modern critics of violent music and media are taking things a bit out of proportion; I mean we aren’t even exposed to actual deaths like our ancestors were.First, Shakespear was a little late for the peasants, by the time he hit the scene the middle ages were pretty much over and the peasantry was dying out. Second, Shakespear's plays were pretty much performed to audiences of upper and middle class folks, not exactly peasant fare was the Globe theatre. Third, the little English boys and gorls of the period were a rather murderous lot, it really wasn't until the 20th century that, for most of the world, mankind in general became peaceful enough that walking alone and unarmed at night is no longer an invitation to robbery and perhaps even murder.

As for Maxwell's Silver Hammer, the difference is that it doesn't glorify violence it merely reports it. If you want a Beetles song which is objectionable for glorifying violence try Happiness Is A Warm Gun:

Happiness is a warm gun
Happiness is a warm gun
When I hold you in my arms
And I feel my finger on your trigger
I know no one can do me no harm
Because happiness is a warm gun
-Yes it is.

No, violent songs are nothing new. Neither are axe murderers. Neither are crazy people. Neither are violent plays/cinema/public spectacles.

If you want to take it back far enough, you all do realize that the average person during the Middle Ages would wait around for hours to watch an execution because it was something entertaining (entertaining in the sense that it disrupted the daily boredom of serf life), right? Also Shakespeare’s plays were performed in front of crowds of people, including impressionable little English peasants and their children, and Shakespeare used animal blood and gore in his fight scenes to make them more realistic. Imagine that…

"Have at you!"

*Stabs*

"Uggh.."

*Falls over*

*Someone offstage tosses some pig entrails and blood onto the ‘wounded’ man as he falls*

Mmmm, delicious…

Anyway, why is it that little English peasant boys and peasant girls never became murderers? Perhaps because the exposure to violence – real violence, including graphic human deaths – did not harm their psyche in such a horrid manner as one would assume. Perhaps then modern critics of violent music and media are taking things a bit out of proportion; I mean we aren’t even exposed to actual deaths like our ancestors were.

Forget the theater. Lets talk about sports!
Bear and bull baiting, were popular at the time of Shakespeare. So were fencing and the violent precursor to the various modern football sports.

It is notable that, AFAIK, the murder rate in Elizabethan London was about 20 murders per 100,000 population, about twice that of the modern US. (Causal connection? Highly debatable.)

If you go back even further, you come to the Roman Circuses.