The murder of Abel. The passion of Medea. Violence is entertainment. The Three Stooges. We may be, as Rich Frankel cites in his essay in this episode, in the midst of a Golden Age , but we also live under a threat of mass destruction, and with the memory of massacres, holocausts , mass starvation, and monumental acts of terrorism .
Crime permeates the public mind.
And punishment becomes an industry. Sex, drugs, and violence, the new horsemen of the Apocalypse, if one would believe the preachers and the politicians. There is nothing new about them. Except maybe the profit margins. It is ironic, if not amusing, to witness the rising hue and cry for censorship of such popular commodities.