Violence and the morale of Justice

Apparently another music video was recently released that has been perceived as being scandalously provocative. So far, I’m afraid the only time I had heard of French group Justice before this here incident, was when they took home an MTV award for “Best Video” at the expense of Kanye West’s ego. So now their new video “Stress” has people up in arms: Numbers on YouTube views and responses are large enough to make Spiegel.de cover the whole issue. Apparently, most of the reactions deal with questions like: Are these real events documented in the clip? Is it carefully staged in order to attain utmost authenticity, which is then used for dramatic effect? And what about the violent nature of all of this – is it right to document or stage, respectively, acts of violence and use them for what appears to be a primarily commercial purpose?

After all, this video clip does want your attention – really, really bad. Yet, I wonder, why get into a moral argument about the motivation of its makers, which cannot move beyond a speculative level anyway? To me, the really interesting question is raised at the end of the clip, when the camera team accompanying the gang of youths becomes part of the action. It reminds me very much of the brilliant movie “C’est arrivé près de chez vous”, in which a team of documentary film makers accompanying a sophisticated serial killer slowly but steadily moves from repulsed fascination to morbid sympathy to active involvement in his profession. In lieu of the viewer, the film maker characters are vicariously forced to reflect upon their fascination with the violent nature of their documentary’s subject, who, they discover, might not be that different from themselves after all.

In my opinion, the same is the case with Justice’s video: In the way it evokes news coverage of the rioting in various Parisian suburbs two years ago (and again last winter), it aims at provoking us into reflecting about why we are so fascinated with watching depictions of violence. And not just in movies (or games, by the way) – it starts with the news already. Let’s face it – violence is obviously newsworthy. How come?

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Tags: C'est arrivé près de chez vous, Fascination, Justice, Kanye West, News, Violence