A History of Violence

[ciphergoth]

Hope you all had a lovely day yesterday, I certainly did, hope to see lots more of lots of you in the new year!

David Cronenberg's 2005 film A History of Violence is on Film4 at 10:50PM. I recommend it - very simple story, very nicely told, high quality violence.

Unrelated but also highly recommended is this Stephen Pinker essay on the dramatic decline in violence throughout history which he also also gave a talk about (video, 20 mins) that I've linked to before.

Have also set up MythTV to tape Madagascar in 20 mins :-)

Comments

[purplerabbits.livejournal.com]

I love the way people still say 'tape'...

[frandowdsofa.livejournal.com]

Excellent movie, and you get to see Aragorn's bum.

[palmer1984.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link to the Stephen Pinker essay. Though I do feel a little uncomfortable with the idea that western influence on the world (colonialism) etc was a force for good (I can't refute his argument, I just feel uncomfortable, and I realise that that isn't an argument)...

On a completely different topic - wanted to reply to you on DJ, but it seems to be down. I wanted to say that I absolutely don't think it's acceptable to call someone stupid on account of their beliefs. I actually can't imagine a situation in which I'd call someone stupid. What I was complaining about was people bitching about being told that their beliefs are rather silly...

[self-etcetera.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link to the Pinker essay.

[cillygirl.livejournal.com]

Interesting to read the essay :)

Scientific enquiries into this area give rise to two strong feelings in me. The first is great joy to find objective justification for humanism as well as greater ability to say why we might say some actions are right and the others are wrong. The other emotion is visceral terror at the thought that our better societies are simply results of ample calories, living space and plenty that come from using fossil fuels, and when they run out the whole edifice will simply collapse. I suppose the latter argument is instantly dismissable by pointing out how different societies react to scarcity in different ways, but it can fuel a few sleepless nights all the same.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

There are several other promising avenues to ample calories in the long run. If we can get through the next 100 years then things will look pretty great.

[drdoug.livejournal.com]

If we can get through the next 100 years it becomes someone else's problem. :-)

(Unless i suppose you buy the Singularity or have a near-zero personal discount rate.)