With the introduction of the internet to our lives the dynamic of communication has changed forever. One significant change is the fact that our present is most different from any other time in our history, or at least has the potential to be. What I mean by that is that we aren’t using the full potential of the internet and our present technology to change our current reality. We’re merely adapting this new technology to our old ways. Instead of using the internet to better communicate and prevent propaganda and ignorance, we use it to further confuse and manipulate reality.
Kocurek writes about using green blood for enemies in video games to make killing them seem less impact and important. That enemy, with green blood, is someone other, someone unlike me, so it’s okay. This is a very troubling line of thinking which we actually employ heavily in the western world. Take a look at Hollywood for instance, and count how many villains are foreign people. It’s troubling, because xenophobia is an incredibly dangerous phobia which can one day even end the world, or at least the human race. Making a villain foreign is the equivalent of giving the villain green blood. The only difference is that being foreign is a very common thing, having green blood isn’t real. The green blood in our reality comes in the form of accents we’re used to seeing on “bad guys” in any kind of media.
The sad thing is it’s just bad writing. The problem isn’t that the villain is foreign, but that most times, the villain isn’t given the spotlight enough to connect with the audience. It’s actually a very powerful and important part of writing, that when executed successfully, tends to create much better stories. The Dark Knight is a great example of that, but there are many others. The Joker becomes a character we understand better and in many ways sympathize with. When a “bad guy” is shot, and the only thing we ever learn about them is that they have an accent, or they’re wearing a turban or whatever, then that’s just shallow writing. I am a firm believer that viewers of all media should always care when a death happens. We shouldn’t be desensitizing people to death, we should be working towards an approach where we treat the deaths of others like we do of our own.