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Why is it that in America vulgar language and sex are taboo in movies yet violence is highly tolerated? Why is it that we're more accepting of guns than we are of prostitution? My theory is that the US suffers from the military industry complex. If you watch TV these days, images have been getting more explicit with regards to violence. The language level though is as sensitive as ever with the fines being sent through the FCC for incidents like the Janet Jackson situation. Still I've noticed the increase in cop shows like CSI and all the variants of that. To me though the presentation of violent acts through the media represents the validation of the military industrial complex present in America. We basically attempt to glorify the police, military and guns in order to maintain those institutions. It would be interesting to see what relation, for instance, the NRA has with the media, especially TV and movie studios in this regard. Also, it's interesting to examine the relationship between our ratings system (e.g. PG, PG-13, etc.) and this notion. PG movies can be quite violent in themselves, yet we're saying that kids from 13 are allowed to view them. People are more concerned about the language used than the violence. In that sense, I'd like to propose that having that glorification of violence leads our kids to want to become violent, essentially moving towards occupations that relate to violence. For instance, the military or the police. I read an article by a Thomas Keller that discussed this issue with regards to Top Gun. It was interesting because after seeing that movie (and watching shows like Robotech in my elementary school days) I had wanted to join the navy. There was something sexy and fulfilling about riding in an F-14 at the time (and still is but in a different way :p). Still I see movies (and producers like Brockheimer) as being staunch supporters for this mentality. Stupifying the content and reducing things to simply visual and audio sensories in the media disallows core issues to be criticized. Like, why do we need a gun in the first place? Instead, the situation becomes, well the explosion was eye candy. So in this sense, there seems to be a kind of validation for why the content of movies has gone down in Hollywood (outside of the fact of the writers union issues). Still why haven't people intervened? The voice of the internet generally has denounced those movies, but most people online are more educated in general. However, none of the newer movies are an attempt to appeal to an erudite audience. They are there to appeal to the younger generation; it's sort of Orwellian, where you remove the language to generate uncritical content and create a 2 minute hate orgy. The young won't understand. However, a huge part of their socialization and education are through the media.