Destruction

What is it about destruction that we humans seem to enjoy so much? The reason, I ask this is because of a game I have been playing over the weekend called Tornado Jockey.

 

In the game, you control a tornado rampaging through several different scenarios farm country, a small town, the suburbs, an airport, an industrial park, and a downtown. The purpose of the game is to destroy as much as possible. I have to admit that it was fun smashing buildings, blowing up propane tanks, and flinging debris around.

 

Obviously a lot of people enjoy this type of game or they wouldn't have made it. I can't be the only one. But, it seems that our love of destruction goes past video games. Who didn't get a charge seeing a wall of water destroy New York City in the Day After Tomorrow, seeing Los Angeles getting shook to pieces in Earthquake, or any number of cities blown up by aliens in Independence Day?

 

Fortunately, these are all constructs of the movie industry or computer programmers. We log off the computer or walk out of the theater feeling a little thrill and maybe a discharge of some aggression. It was some harmless fun.

 

But in real life it isn't so fun and maybe it is a little more ominous that the television crews lovingly linger over scenes of destruction and we all drink it in from our couches while watching CNN. In reality, a wall of water destroying Banda Aceh, the aftermath of a fault slippage in Kobe, Japan, or balls of flame erupting from high rise buildings in New York City isn't as harmless.