In this exercise, I asked students to answer this question quickly, off the tops of their heads. I then collected their answers in class. I recorded every answer that was given by more than one respondent. Here were the answers I got:

1. It has become a part of our culture and it's pictured a lot.
2. In the movies, violence is associated with heroism and is always necessary for a hero to survive or prevail.
3. Violence is easier to understand than talking.
4. Attraction to violence starts early in this culture because children are attracted to violent cartoons.
5. Americans more than any other people love the feeling of being in power and being in control.
6. People are attracted to living violent lives vicariously.
7. Americans like violent entertainment because American entertainment too frequently portrays violence as a virtuous course of action.
8. We expect violence now.
9. Our love of violence is strictly related to our loss of the Vietnam War.
10. The news is violent.
11. Violence is an acceptable norm.
12. Violence is exciting.

We now revisited each of these answers to demonstrate that seen properly, each "answer" only raised more questions. Therefore each answer was not a conclusion to an essay, but a beginning of an essay exploring this train of thought.

1. It has become a part of our culture and it's been pictured a lot.

Why has it been pictured a lot? Why did it become a part of our culture? What is "our culture"? What are its distinguishing features? Why? How did the characteristics of our culture develop; as a response to what historical events or social problems? Have Americans always been a violent people compared to, say, the British or Germans or peoples of other nations?

2. In the movies, violence is associated with heroism and is always necessary for a hero to survive or prevail.

Is this true in life, or only in movies? That is, do most real-life heroes have to resort to violence to survive or prevail? If it's not true in life, why do the movies portray it as true? If it is true in life, why is it true? What is "violence"? For example, we know that hitting someone is a violent act. But is lying about someone or insulting someone a violent act? Is firing someone from a job a violent act? Is raising someone's rent a violent act? If so, does it matter how much you raise it? What is heroism? What makes a person a hero and why?

3. Violence is easier to understand than talking.

Has that always been the case, or is that a recent development attributable, say, to declining levels of literacy in our society? Has that always been the case, or is it a recent developent attributable, say, to declining public faith in the honesty of political debate and rhetoric? What's so hard to understand about talking, anyway? Is talking a problem for some emotional reason that has little to do with intellectual insight? For example, is talking a problem because it takes too long and impatient people can't deal with that? Is it really true that violence is always easier to understand than talking? Can violence sometimes be more rather than less difficult to understand? If so then when, and why?

4. Attraction to violence starts early in this culture because children are attracted to violent cartoons.

Are all children attracted to violent entertainment, or is this a unique American phenomenon? What other childish likes do we find disturbing and why? (For example, there's the childish love of gross-out jokes and bathroom language.) Does it make sense for children to be attracted to violence? If so, why? Is there a connection between this explanation for our attraction to violence and the one given in point # 5? If so, why?

5. Americans, more than many other people, love the feeling of being in power and/or in control.

Why should we feel more "in control" if we choose the option of violence? (After all, this may mean we are more in control of others, but less in control of ourselves. And it may mean we're less in control of both, given the number of people on death row who say they never meant to kill their victims but "things just got out of hand".) What does it mean to be "in control" of a situation? What is "control"? What does it mean to "control" others? What is self-control? Which is more important? Why? How do we get control of others? How do we get self-control? Why should Americans need more of a feeling of control vicariously, through entertainment, than people of other nations?

6. People are attracted to living violent lives vicariously.

What's attractive about a violent life? What's different about the lives of people who don't shun violence? What do they have that we don't? What underlying emotions fuel this attraction to violence? For example, are we a chronically angry nation? If so, why? Are these feelings increasing in the modern world? If so, why? What are the frustrations of life that would make violence appealing? Why? Are these frustrations increasing in modern American life? If so, why?

7. Americans like violent entertainment because American entertainment too frequently portrays violence as a virtuous course of action.

Is it ever really true in life that pacifism/passivity/compromise, or anything else we think of as the opposite of violence, is evil? When? Why? What problems, situations, or conditions demand a violent response and make violence a virtuous course of action? Have these circumstances become more common in our lives? Why? Is it possible that we're confusing violence with some other character trait--such as decisiveness, courage, or originality--when we paint it as a virtue? If we are, why has this confusion become easy or natural for us? What are the chief human virtues, and how ought we to describe a "virtuous" person?

8. We expect violence now.

Does this mean we've been negatively conditioned; that is, taught poor taste? If so, who has done this teaching? For what motive, or as a reponse to what impulse, value, or belief? NOTE: We want to avoid falling into the tautological trap of saying, "Hollywood producers make it because we like it, and we like it because they make it." We understand that an appetite for something may be increased by indulging that appetite on a regular basis. But you could also decrease your appetite for something by repeatedly indulging in it. For example, it's hard to say whether constantly eating pepperoni pizza would make us want more or less of it, after awhile.

Perhaps we should approach this statement another way. What do we mean when we say that we "expect" violence? Do we mean that we like and anticipate it with excitement? Or do we mean that even though we don't like it, we know that this is what the producers have seen fit to cram down out throats? If we "expect" violence more now on screen, do we also "expect" it more now in life? What are the implications?

9. Our love of violence goes back to our loss of the Vietnam War.

Why? Is it because we can't stand the thought of having ever lost a war? Or is it because we're angered by the futility of lost lives? Or is it because the Vietnam War exposed other injustices in our society, and violence is an appropriate response to those injustices? Is it because this war cheapened our view of human life? Is it because this war taught us that violence works? If so, how did it teach us that?

10. The news is violent.

Why? Is the problem more violence in the real world or is the problem one of media focus on the wrong things? If the problem is one of media focus, why would the media want to focus on violence? Because we like it? Because we fear it? Because it makes daily life seem more dramatic and important? How are we "helped" in some way by seeing violence that has happened to others?

11. Violence is an acceptable norm.

What do we mean by "acceptable"? For others? For ourselves? For ourselves only as perpetrators, or as victims, or both? Is it truly "acceptable"? That is, do we really "accept" the idea of killing or being killed in ordinary daily life, or is "accept" the wrong word? If "accept" is the wrong word, what word are we really looking for, and why? If "accept" is the right word, then Is violence "acceptable" because it's the lesser of several evils? If so, what are the other evils, and how have they become so important for us to avoid?

12. Violence is exciting.

Some of the essays that resulted have been placed on reserve in the library, if you want to look at them.