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

[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...