To view something is a passive phenomenon, one in which disconnection and disassociation can easily occur. To witness on the other hand, carries with it the implication of testimony, the possibility of responding, of responsibility. It also implies the testimony of an individual witness, not the politics or pressure of a group consensus.

We in the comfortable, safe ‘West’ spend vast amounts of money to watch images of fabricated violence, while at the same time the real violence is escalating horribly across the world. One of the many reasons this insanity is occurring is that censorship bodies prohibit us from truly witnessing what is happening in reality in the world in the 21st century. We are deemed somehow ‘too sensitive’ to watch images on the nightly news of the brutality that is actually happening in our world, too sensitive to look at the uncomfortable consequences on real human beings, of the wars, policies, arms sales and clashing belief systems. This is another insanity. As the award winning journalist Sorious Somoura has said ‘how can we be too sensitive to watch these images, when we have freedom and the ability to turn away, to do something about it, to respond, whereas those that are actually suffering do not have that chance, that freedom’. How can we be ‘too sensitive’ to watch it, when we have such an appetite for images of false violence, that they fill our screens, at home, and in the cinema. Movie violence normalises our perception and acceptance of real violence only if we cannot compare it to images of the real thing.

The media employ heavily framed formats, in particular for representations of violence, whether fictional or real. In films, no matter how realistic the violence may seem, there is absolutely no connection whatsoever to the horror of real violence. This is underlined by the use of charismatic actors, dramatic narrative music, happy ‘meaningful’ endings, big explosions and exciting gun sounds, and the increasingly glamorous manner in which the violence is presented . In a film, bombs may fall, people may be shot and die, but you don’t have to watch the unbearable spectacle of real people burning alive, bleeding to death, screaming in horror, living and dying in great pain. You may watch, for your enjoyment, a known actor writhing about ‘dying’ but you know that he will get up at the end of the take and go home. Movie violence normalises our acceptance of the reality and inevitability of real violence, because it seduces us into finding it beautiful. It seduces us into finding it meaningful. The subconscious message is: violence is fun, violence is ok, it has meaning , it is survivable, it is normal. We pay for the privilege of this subversive indoctrination.

Real violence sounds, looks and feels terrible, it is truly horrifying. No words can approach what it is to really experience or see violence. It is simply unbearable to watch, unbearable to conceive of, difficult to respond to, confusing, demoralising and challenging. There are no happy endings. There is no dramatic music, no deeper meaning, no glamorous Tom Cruise or George Clooney killing or dying for their country, or god, beliefs, woman etc. There is only the harsh sight of a fellow human suffering needlessly, meaninglessly.