The bible tells us in the seventh Commandment that one cannot kill. But according to both historical and present statistical data, the interspecies kill rate for humans is about 2.3%, and this has been consistent since prehistory. The enjoyment many derive from violent entertainment, including MMA, boxing, American football, video games, TV, and movies among other physical and electronic activities and media, is disturbing in its similarity to what people now view as inhumane and barbaric, such as gladiator fights in Ancient Rome (they did not kill, as is commonly believed).
My question was: why do we feel so excited to view these instances of violence, real or virtual, and is there any connection between that and the high killing rate within our own species, including but certainly not limited to, war?
Evolution, as usual, comes in to play here. “Fitness” is a well-known, but equally misunderstood term used within conversations about evolution. Fitness is all encompassing and is not made-up of just literal physical fitness like stamina and strength, but also includes mental and emotional attributes (if applicable), cognition, intelligence, and physical attributes like having a tail, being bipedal or quadrupedal, what the organism eats, etc.
Genetically, most humans are primed to enjoy violence, to be rewarded with endorphins, specifically dopamine, that induce a sense of pleasure and that drive us to do healthy things like eating and reproducing (and sometimes unhealthy things, like addiction). This disturbing pleasure we receive from violence also served us during our time as hunter-gatherers, as we continued to evolve and become more socially inclined, creating paranoia, and increasing the fitness of our species.
At first, warfare wasn’t as deadly, with melee and simple projectile weapons like bows reigning dominant. But then, people began organizing into countries, and the science of weaponry grew as these nations competed to gain a competitive advantage in the game of war in the form of bigger weapons that can kill or injure more combatants.
This game eventually culminated into the perpetually tense nuclear atmosphere that has dominated the political climate of the world since the Second World War, but even though world peace would benefit us all tremendously, we simply cannot kick this inclination towards violence.
Now, like most of our impulses, we can control this. Government and police forces have reigned in this need for violence, with entrepreneurs finding ways to exploit this dopamine gusher through less personal means. In terms of entertainment, violence becomes fun only if we maintain control over the situation.
This is why watching from the benches in a stadium or using a controller to control a virtual avatar is fun and not nearly as stressful as raiding an enemy tribe for resources, or defending oneself against similar attacks. There is little adrenaline to counteract the dopamine rush, leading to entertainment, and a reinforcement of this enjoyment.
Is this moral? It is a known fact that nature cares little for anything, especially morality, but humans do. In my personal opinion, this is something that is deeply embedded within us as humans. It isn’t an enjoyment we can simply rid ourselves of and, considering studies have shown that those who have little to no propensity for real-life violence are hardly affected if at all by violence as entertainment, I say that there isn’t anything wrong with it.
It is sometimes difficult to admit that we as humans are still animals that still fall to our instincts and impulses, even if it seems like we are in control of them. However, I say that indulging these impulses in safe and nonharmful ways seems more conducive to our well-beings than simply repressing them and pretending that they do not exist. I play first-person shooters sometimes, among other violent video games.
I enjoy violent media, as well as nonviolent media, and yet I have had no serious thoughts about harming any people or animals. Sometimes anger, of course, can cause these urges, but I can control them. I accept that I derive enjoyment from violent things, just as I accept my emotions, faults, impulses, and so on.