[krapp]

>there are dozens of super hero type movies that display violence as utterly ordinary, necessary, and proper, where only the bad guys die forever and justice is ultimately served.

Not just superhero movies - action movies, westerns, ancient myths and religions in which the heroes were always violent - maybe violent and cunning, but always violent, and the gods were often as ruthless and petty as nature itself.

Thinking of violence as anything but utterly ordinary, necessary and proper has been the exception rather than the rule in human societies. People still believe in war as a noble adventure that turns undisciplined boys into proper men... people still believe in holy war.

I think these stories reflect a fundamental need in people to fit a narrative onto a blind and arbitrary universe. We want there to be heroes and villains, for good to prosper and the wicked to be punished, for there to be a reason behind it all, even if that reason is aliens or the Illuminati, and a God who prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies. We don't want to know that the world is capricious and arbitrary, that evil people die in their sleep surrounded by wealth and comfort while good people die in the street like dogs for no reason.

[watwut]

> Thinking of violence as anything but utterly ordinary, necessary and proper has been the exception rather than the rule in human societies. People still believe in war as a noble adventure that turns undisciplined boys into proper men.

One thing to consider is that a lot of this is literally propaganda.

If you want war, you need rally public support. Or at least it is helpful.It is tripple helpful for young men to go there voluntary and see it as calling. You need then to believe certain things to facilitate building great army.

The army and war being shown as aspirationa was often political. Even censorship rules often facilitated that goal.

[ksdale]

You're completely correct, of course. Violence is definitely utterly ordinary. I suppose I meant something more along the lines of mundane or even gentle?... I'm not sure what would have been a better way to phrase it, but I think most people, in the western world, at least, would be shocked at just how violent real violence is because of how it is portrayed in popular media.

[krapp]

>but I think most people, in the western world, at least, would be shocked at just how violent real violence is because of how it is portrayed in popular media.

Most of the reason for that, of course, is marketing. Less violent movies can be rated to reach a wider audience. In the comics, depending on the era, writer, etc, superheroes could be extremely cynical and violent.