Brutality is respected. The people need wholesome fear. They want to fear something. They want someone to frighten them and make them shudderingly submissive. Why babble about brutality and get indignant about tortures? The masses want them. They need something that will give them the thrill of horror. - Ernst Röhm

Agree?

In modern society you only need to look at the popularity of newspapers like “The Daily Mail” to see just how much humans long to read about misery. I have heard people ring into radio stations convinced that if they leave their house they will be attacked by some young thugs, or blown up by terrorists. From basing too much of your reality on one source, in this case newspapers, you can eventually develop this view of the world. Of course, that is an extreme example, but I think all of us feel this fear to some extent or another.

Fair enough, the media publishes bad news because that is what sells, which must means that is what we want, to hear about suffering. The horror genre attempts to satisfy the same desire, people like to feel fear, to feel there is evil around them. Why? Perhaps this is part of human nature, perhaps it is something to be overcome.

If so, are we overcoming this desire? Brutality is perhaps less obvious than it was in say, roman times, but maybe we are just receiving the same sort of material through different channels. I think any change, or freedom from widespread fear, has to come from a change of attitude in each individual, not be presented by some media house. I don’t think the media is really to blame for presenting this “STREETS OF TERROR” attitude to us, the whole population decides what the media should put emphasis on. And we decide this is what we want.