Violence
The American society is one that is completely obsessed with violence and having said that frowns upon any other society with any inkling of a violent past or present. Children from the greater New Orleans area actually are proud to be from the "murder capital" and some children in Texas are actually bothered by this distinction being placed on their neighbors to the east. Violence is glorified everywhere and on everything. You'd be hard pressed to turn on the news without hearing about some shooting and you'd be at a much larger disadvantage to find a primetime show with now violence. People say that America is violent due to its past but we have more murders than the Germans, French, and English, and they all have pretty violent pasts of their own. I'd be the first to say that art doesn't influence life but in a cycle art imitates life imitates arts imitates life.
My major in college exposed me to research done on the correlation of media and real life. I'd be the first to say only those with weak minds are vulnerable to acts of violence committed on film or on the radio. I grew up listening to rap and watching The Godfather on a regular basis and I'm one of the most passive people I know. America was a violent nation prior to the advent of television and radio so what would be the justification there? What do we blame for the eradication of Native Americans? People blame the media because it's easy and it's obvious, but if you think about it more people have been killed under the guise of religion than anything else. You can't blame religion because then you are "blaming men of God" and you can't blame the government because then you are literally blaming the governing body. The truth is no one really wants violence to stop because it is condoned only when it is in their favor, i.e. execution, "justifiable homicide", war, etc. To get rid of violence one must get rid of violence in all forms, not just those that they find unacceptable or inconvenient.
