Modern society has been blighted by a plague of killings and a fascination with killers. We live in world where depicting killing has become normalised and in fact popularised over generations. Almost every major religion makes frequent references to killing as a way of propagating its beliefs or maintaining its integrity. National governments have installed the threat of war as a deterrent. Government sanctioned killing by agent or drone are rife. Nationalistic causes have largely adopted killing as an attention grabber and negotiation leverage. The news media literally salivate at the prospect of reporting murders and deaths in any context. Book, film, tv and social media are dominated by killing and gratuitous violence.
Tragically we now live in a society where people too often resort to murder to take what they want, avenge a slight or assuage hurt feelings. One can only pray that resorting to murder to resolve knotty issues doesn't become the norm. It seems to be a consistent theme in everything we read and watch.
It is difficult to imagine us evolving into a kinder and more gentle society when killing and maiming have become skills to most desire. Violence in our society won't abate until we turn away from the gratuitous enjoyment of killing and violence. Killing is a reality of the world we live in but we have become dangerously desensitised to its destructiveness.
