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As time permits, in-depth musings on myriad subjects will be posted. Abbreviated adages will be announced via Twitter.

Friday, January 04, 2013

Fresh Air, Indeed

A link to a USA Today story involving Terry Gross's interview with Quentin Tarantino from the NPR program, Fresh Air, was sent to me, recently. I heard the tail-end of this interview the other day, but this comment by Tarantino really caught my attention:


Tarantino added that violence in movies does not affect violence in society."Obviously the issue is gun control and mental health," he said.

While various studies will either support or contradict Tarantino's views, one of those obvious issues, however, can be affected by violence in movies; the former obvious issue is affected by the latter. Granted, people need some vicarious outlet for our more violent sides, hence the popularity of gladiator games and their modern equivalent, American football, and all points in between, including cinema. The trick, I think, will not be so much curbing gun control as it is curbing gun fascination, which should begin with rethinking society's approach to mental health. Pretending it (mental health) is not there or wishing it would go away won't fix anything. At the risk of sounding hackneyed, the first step to a solution is admitting there is a problem.

I may be off, but I think the band, Blue October, tried promoting this re-approach a few years back with their album Approaching Normal. For whatever reason (band not mainstream enough since it's been too many years since their biggest hit from American Wedding, "Calling You," society still not ready to have that conversation, etc.), the movement didn't take hold. Maybe it's time have that conversation and approach some semblance of normal.

Thanks for reading.