Gun worship, the global religion of our time

When I was a kid it was all cowboys and Indians, and I fashioned Colt 45s out of bits of wood and Lego.  Then it was the Man from Uncle, James Bond, Dirty Harry, then later the ironic gun play in Tarantino films.  Then of course there's "24" and numberless gun-toting films and series on TV.

I can't imagine how many people I've seen get shot in the name of entertainment.  It's normal, par for the course, all in a day's viewing.  From a certain perspective it's not so different from the bread and circuses of Ancient Rome, where the plebs went along to watch gladiators fight and die for their pleasure.  The difference now is that we don't smell the fear and the blood, plus we get close-ups and slow-mo shots of bullets meeting flesh and exiting amid a spray of blood.

My youngest came back from an overnight today, having played an 18-plus rated video game.  "I killed eight in my go, but Joe's record is 27 - that's amazing".  Part of me felt disgusted and part of me thought, don't be stupid, boys will be boys.

It's bad enough living in a global popular culture where gun worship is widespread, casual death by shooting is normal.  I'm just glad I live in a country and a continent where most people don't carry guns and confine their gun worship to screens. 

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Professional Thinking and Writing