The Purge

What if our American society was perfect in every sense of the word. We did not have homelessness, violence, poverty; everyone had a job and made a decent living for themselves. What if the government did not have to do much governing because we conducted ourselves in a civil fashion that required little law enforcement? You may ask well how could this be?
One day out of the every year every citizen is able to wreck havoc amongst the country; you can rob, steal, kill, fight, burn up a town if you like! You will not suffer any consequences for the crimes you commit, all of the anger you may have had for the entire year can be released on anyone or anything and no one could reprimand you. All for the sake of peace, tranquility, and prosperity throughout the rest of the year. Your only goal is to stay alive during this period and make it to the next day; twenty four hours of mayhem, in order to live a great life for 364 days. Would you choose to live in such a society, would the pros our way the cons?
This is actually a movie that will be in theaters next month. But what if American society did function as such; one night of suffering for a year of happiness. This reminds me of “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas”, in order to maintain a great lifestyle, someone had to suffer. As long as the person is not you and your loved ones, would you live there for the sake of a great life throughout the year?
Check out the movie trailer: The Purge, and tell me what you think!

7 thoughts on “The Purge

  1. Ok, I just watched the trailer — I will not be seeing that movie! It is an interesting idea, although the film seems to be a total horror movie. But you are right about the Omelas connection — Ethan Hawke seems clear that as long as it is not them then whatever happens outside their house (for that one night) is the price you pay. It is interesting to think of it as Omeals inverted: instead of hiding away the child the terrible thing is let out and if you do not want to be apart of it you hide away.

  2. I just watched this trailer and agree that the ending makes it appear as a horror film, but it is an interesting concept. I was thinking about my own self and the decisions I might make in a society like this. Although it would be wonderful living there 364 days, that one day would be beyond unbearable. It makes me question why people would feel the need to let out all of this anger and aggression. Are we as human beings incapable of acting civilized and showing respect for one another all of the time? I personally would like to think so, I feel like most of the people I know try to conduct themselves in a reasonable manner without feeling the urge to commit serious crimes. Also, it made me wonder what it would be like that one day. If there are no repercussions, even people who would not normally steal, etc. may be tempted to do so, if for no other reason, than to “keep up” with everyone else. I still feel like this would be a serious stretch for our society to come to, and hope most people would not be so willing to harm each other, just because it is allowed. After all, laws are the result of what people feel is right and wrong.

  3. Wow, tht is the absolute creepiest thing I have ever seen. I’m not sure how I feel about the fact that people have so much pent up frustration in a year that they need to kill someone to let off some steam. I think this movie is going to speak to human nature itself. Are we so debased in our nature that it could come to this? i think this movie really underestimates the capability of man for inherent goodness. How many people would take this opportunity just because its there. I would hope not very many. I would also hope that the whole “well as long as it doesn’t affect me I’m ok with it” mentality is the exception and not the norm. But hey I’m an optimist.

  4. I feel like one of the repercussions of a society like this would be the next day. What if you witnessed your best friend kill an innocent person or do some other horrible act like that. I feel regardless of the societies allowances of these crimes during the time window, people would not be able to function after the time window in a productive way. I feel the ripple effect from a day like this would be the complete opposite – I feel instead of peace and harmony, it would be complete and utter chaos. My reasoning stems from this – how many revenge, vigilante movies are there where a son or relative gets killed and the victim goes and seeks revenge? I feel like if this day was allowed, everyone would go out and seek revenge on the murder or crime done against them immediately, not wait 364 days. If people are reduced to nothing after this day, what does the law matter to them? I feel like if this day happened just once, the rise of revenge and vigilante-ism would continue for the next days and society would be reduced to anarchy and chaos. For example, in this movie, what if the killers cant get into the house and the man survives? They just let him go? My answer would be no and regardless of the “purge” or not, they would kill him and the cycle would rage on.

  5. There are a number of issues I see with this idea of a society. First off, most violent acts are from intense emotion and people are not able to do that properly on a day to day basis much less a year.

    But that aside, I have trouble seeing a community as large as the US being able to make a collective agreement to such a day. IF this day was to occur, there would have to be no violation what so ever, in order for people to hold the agreement.

    Also on that day what if the people that were keeping up the order were to be killed? It would open up the possiblity for change constantly, and not the Obama kind of change. It would put the society’s infrastructure in jeopardy. Institutions would fail, food distribution would be harmed, and governmental structure could be destroyed in a day. Sounds like there would be the possibility for all progress to be set back at zero in a day, and that would lead to a complete collapse.

  6. I’m inclined to think along the same lines as Will. The effect of the “Purge” would be entirely the opposite of what this movie portrays. Allowing and condoning violence will only lead to more violence. How could you ever explain to a child that murder, rape, genocide, etc are acceptable today, but not yesterday or tomorrow?

    Also, on a separate note, how stereotypical is this movie? The well-to-do upper middle class white family sits behind their layers of high tech security measures, watching the poor lower classes massacre each other on the news. Now that part, I could actually believe.

  7. After watching the trailer to me it seems more taxing on the morality and ethic of a person than its worth. We all carry a certain degree of hate and anger within us. However I think what makes these ideas flawed much like omelas is life truly happy and free knowing what you’ve done? Myself personally I find life to not be happy if its at the expense of others in its most core sense. Unfortunately, its a dog eat dog world. The purge merely represents it on a much grander scale. Obviously it delves in to a horror flick for the entertainment side, but it’s relevance to what we sometimes think is helpful is often harmful. I’d feel like crap for 364 days. It would really just be all the good people refusing to harm each other and all the bad people have a hall pass.

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