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Literature Text
"BATMAN" is not responsible for the massacre in Aurora, Colorado!
There are two conflicting approaches to interpreting the slaughter in the Century theater. The route of intellectual laziness would be to blame the medium. It would be folly to place responsibility on this violent movie or on violent movies in general.
The responsible conclusion is to single out the culprit himself as the culpable party.
Humans are not hive-minded insects and should not think as such. We are a community of individuals. Each of us must take responsibility for his or her individual actions.
It is obvious that the "alleged" perpetrator of this atrocity was inspired by the portrayal of the Joker from the previous "Batman" film. He is a real-life psychotic who embraced the the notion that "Some men just want to watch the world burn". Had it not been this, probably some other stimulus derived from pop culture might have triggered this man to act out violently.
John Lennon was the victim of just such a deranged fan. Before his murder in 1980,Lennon was asked in an interview what he thought about the fact that Charles Manson had been inspired by the Beatles song "Helter Skelter" to send his cult followers on a mass murder spree in 1969. Lennon reminded the inteviewer that David Birkawitz, New York's 44 Calibur serial killer called himself "the Son of Sam". The Sam in this case was a DOG who the killer believed was sending him secret instructions to go out and kill.
In the 1970's a deranged individual called in a bomb threat against an airliner in flight. He claimed that if the plane descended below 5,000 feet that the bomb would go off. The plane was directed to land at a remote high altitude military base. The threat was a hoax. However, it was immediately recognized as the exact same plot device as a TV movie that had been written by "Twilight Zone" creator Rod Serling. When the press asked Serling if he felt to be in any way responsible he gave the definitive answer to all such situations as this one.
"Who knows what sort of radical nutsy is going to crawl out of the woodwork? As a writer I am responsible TO my audience, not FOR my audience.
--- Rod Serling (1973)
There are two conflicting approaches to interpreting the slaughter in the Century theater. The route of intellectual laziness would be to blame the medium. It would be folly to place responsibility on this violent movie or on violent movies in general.
The responsible conclusion is to single out the culprit himself as the culpable party.
Humans are not hive-minded insects and should not think as such. We are a community of individuals. Each of us must take responsibility for his or her individual actions.
It is obvious that the "alleged" perpetrator of this atrocity was inspired by the portrayal of the Joker from the previous "Batman" film. He is a real-life psychotic who embraced the the notion that "Some men just want to watch the world burn". Had it not been this, probably some other stimulus derived from pop culture might have triggered this man to act out violently.
John Lennon was the victim of just such a deranged fan. Before his murder in 1980,Lennon was asked in an interview what he thought about the fact that Charles Manson had been inspired by the Beatles song "Helter Skelter" to send his cult followers on a mass murder spree in 1969. Lennon reminded the inteviewer that David Birkawitz, New York's 44 Calibur serial killer called himself "the Son of Sam". The Sam in this case was a DOG who the killer believed was sending him secret instructions to go out and kill.
In the 1970's a deranged individual called in a bomb threat against an airliner in flight. He claimed that if the plane descended below 5,000 feet that the bomb would go off. The plane was directed to land at a remote high altitude military base. The threat was a hoax. However, it was immediately recognized as the exact same plot device as a TV movie that had been written by "Twilight Zone" creator Rod Serling. When the press asked Serling if he felt to be in any way responsible he gave the definitive answer to all such situations as this one.
"Who knows what sort of radical nutsy is going to crawl out of the woodwork? As a writer I am responsible TO my audience, not FOR my audience.
--- Rod Serling (1973)
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I agree with you one that.