COUNTERPUNCH LETTERS : ‘Killers.’ Get <i> It</i> ?

When Jennifer Myers says that “the audience doesn’t get it,” I am afraid she didn’t get it. But it is a different it (“Two Thumbs Down for ‘Natural Born Killers’: Young Viewers May Not Perceive the Satire,” Sept. 12).

In Jonathan Swift’s era, satire averted retaliation invited by a direct attack on the Establishment. In our free society, anyone can and does say anything, especially about our leaders. Satire has become obsolete, an arcane device appreciated by very few.

And the it ? That society doesn’t see violence as reprehensible. It is too frightful to be real. It can still only happen to others, not to me. Every presentation of violence is absorbed as entertainment only. Taken any other way it would be too menacing. And the media is merely part of the system to deliver the entertainment.

The media fete us with hours of police-formation riding/driving. The audience reaction to Stone’s cinematic violence is the important message. Do we respond to themes of extreme violence as entertainment because we feel helpless to control its menace--or do we simply not get it?

ALLEN KAPLAN

Fountain Valley