OUR FASCINATION WITH DISASTER MOVIES

BOOK BITS

"HERE ON EARTH" BY TIM FLANNERY  - PART 2 

As a fan of disaster movies, I sometimes feel embarrassed to admit it.

I make it a point to avoid movies involving violence, cruelty, horror, and generally anything to do with drama.  Chick flics are fine with me as long as they are comedies. I feel repelled by tragedy.  But I make an exception when it comes to science fiction and disaster movies.  

Years ago I watched The Day After Tomorrow  and the Imax documentary Forces of Nature about twenty times each.  I sit mesmerized in front of the TV newscast whenever there is a major natural disaster,  going through possible similar scenarios in my mind and ways in which I would deal with them.

While Romans in the ancient empire regularly watched sadistic and bloody live shows in the Coliseum, now people watch simulations on television.  Why do they do that?  

Tim Flannery has a theory.  He does not elaborate on it, but just makes a reference to a possible human genetic propensity to be fascinated with violence as a spectator activity.

He writes:  There may be an evolutionary reason for this fascination.  Birds will flock about if one of their numbers is caught by a hawk. Perhaps we are genetically predisposed to observe such things from a safe distance, because we may learn how to avoid a similar fate. (Page 144)

Another Book Bit  from Tim Flannery's  Here on Earth
Early man's destructiveness of the environment - http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/03/book-bits-here-on-earth-by-tim-flannery.html

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