The Games people play now betray an obsession for primal passions
Firstly, the games people play now betray an obsession for primal passions. Not surprisingly, the various forms of entertainment involve explicit sex and violence. Be it movies, music videos, music channels or computer games there’s an extra dose of sex and violence. We are constantly fed with body images that incite sensual pleasure and bloodshed that incite violence. Directors say that their job is to offer titillation because there is a demand for it out there.
A new promiscuousness swamps our screens. A new generation of actors, actresses and directors are blurring the lines that divide glamour and vulgarity. Can somebody please explain why a movie like Jism, which easily qualifies to be rated as a porn film – became a hit? Worse, it started the trend of senseless, if not soul-less skin show flicks. These skin-show flicks were not seen as C-grade movies any longer; for it had earned the acceptance of mainstream entertainment since it featured big names from the modeling Industry. Now, the tinsel town did not have to hide behind the usual ‘ the-story-demanded-it’ responses. These movies with sexually explicit scenes were deemed bold, artistic and films come of age. These provide fodder for music Television and other entertainment channels and primal passions are served to us during our leisure activity.
Moreover, We are so familiar with violence as we watch endless reports of real-life brutality and a barrage of fictional violence euphemized as “action”. Not a day goes by without an extra dose of aggression from the media. We have started to enjoy all the ‘shooting’ and killing that happens. While cinema has made ‘violence’ entertaining computer games have made this entertainment into an pleasure engagement through a simulated experience.
What is worrisome is that our kids in the name of leisure/entertainment are engaged in violence that is graphic, more sexual, and more sadistic. Take for example the most popular computer game The Grand Auto Theft. In this game, players need to beat prostitutes to death with baseball bats after having sex with them.
Secondly, our kids are engaged in violence without having to make moral judgments. They either ‘shoot or kill’ or hit and run for entertainment sake. Thirdly, you are made to engage with violence without consequences. They either ‘shoot or kill’ or hit and run for entertainment sake. Leisure has suddenly morphed into entertainment and if you take a closer look at leisure today it is merely playing out our primal passions with technical gadgetry raised to the level of intellectual sophistication.
Should it then surprise us if our parties are advertised as WILD parties or if we carry the self-description as ‘party animals’. Stewart Ewen’s comments are instructive. He comments,
“ Advertising is not about the qualities of the products being sold, but about the lives of the people being addressed.”
