In our culture, same as in the most world cultures, death ought to be treated with respect. When coming to speak about it, it often becomes important not to cross the line with black humour and cynical attitude. Although cynicism has now become an ordinary phenomenon and does not even shock us, there is still a paradox--our people are often very pious, often devoted believers, but on the other hand they watch TV-shows about the jogging dead, celebrate Halloween and play computer games about zombies in which our task is to launch the strung up man so that they flies as far as feasible and escapes from the city using various helping tools that can be bought from the game shop.
What do all these 'cynical' practices reveal about the human nature, and whether and how can they be integrated with our love to life and belief in the power of the Nice? Let us take Halloween, for example. This feast originated among the ancient Celts and was brought to The united states from Europe, but as it was later very fully prohibited in England, France etc., Americans became the ones who truly breathed new life in to it. The preliminary idea behind the celebration was that on the night when the transfer from autumn to winter happens (and November was thought about the beginning of winter), the souls and ghosts of the dead visit the Earth, and therefore, on Halloween people preferred not to stay alone, made fire and were on their guard in order to make positive the sinful spirits could not have them over the barrel. So that is where modern carnival comes from: in order to protect oneself from the sinful spirits, has to dress up and pose as these spirits. This is by no means 'taking over demonic disposition and destroying human appearance that was given to them by God' - these are the ways people use to protect themselves from the sinful spirits. In the modern society, however, people not very think of how to protect themselves from the sinful spirits by disguising themselves as zombies, witches and vampires - I would say that it most probably reveals the necessity of people to throw away their 'normal' social roles from time to time and take up something unusual.
Similarly, most people do not tend to think that such events can traumatize the kid's mind, demoralize the kids and even demonize them, vice versa, they treat this event as something to our children with.
Ok, that was about the celebration, even if a controversial. But how about all these scary movies and games involving werewolves, vampires and zombies? Are there not scary events in the criminal chronicles they are watching on TV every day? Well, such movies and games have exceptionally high ratings and wide audiences, and plenty of would say that the reason for this popularity is the fact that plenty of people like watching something unusual, stepping aside from traditions from time to time, getting themselves terrified so that adrenaline is released, and for plenty of such films and games represent the chance to overcome the fear of death. In fact, I think that such practices are an element of American death-denying culture pointed out by Mitford, as it teaches - as practically all pagan religions and feasts do --that people ought to not be afraid of death, and that comic attitude to it is feasible.
Everything ought to be balanced, of work, and it is up to you whether you love it or detest it. But thing ought to be kept in mind: people are all different. They may detest these practices, holidays, movies and games and even try to abandon them--however, the fact remains that millions of people will be engaged in to these activities and enjoy them a lot. And not necessarily these people are bloodthirsty maniacs -- they may be the individuals who are overcoming fear with the help of laughter... or having their fun.
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