when Jerry Kaiser snapped - Altman's 'Short Cuts' and the human condition in 21st century international politics

if you haven't seen the film 'short cuts' by robert altman (and what are you waiting for, then???) you probably shouldn't read any further, unless you don't care about a pivotal moment at the end being spoiled for you...

Was it the sexual tension building up from hearing his wife talk endlessly on the phone about strange men's cocks, the emasculating ordeal in the club where he failed to stand up for himself against the black man who tried to buy his wife's sexual favours, or was there something more deeply disturbed about the character of Jerry Kaiser?

Why did Jerry snap in the park and brutally beat the young girl to death? Why, in plain daylight, in front of witnesses, would Jerry resort to such a depraved act of violence? Why?

Is violence an essential human reaction to extreme negative circumstances - a human essentiality that is culturally frowned upon? How can this be so, given our government's continued use of violent means to bring forth ends that are rarely defined in justifiable ways? In what way can a denunciation of individual violence be culturally enforced in the face of continued violence at the hands of the state?

The answer - the state is violent. It's violence is not an extension of human violence, but a wholly different creature. The state, by this calculation, is not an extension of the individual or the collective - it exists independently of the human condition, though its actions may mirror, mimic or be otherwise similar to those of the individual.

State violence and individual violence exist on different plains. The state does not act out aggressively like Jerry did. There is always willful calculation in its acts of violence - inhuman calculation. Unfeeling calculation. Cold calculation. To the state, violence is a numbers game. To Jerry, violence was an acting out - an emotional response.

Thus, we accept the cold, calculated violence of the state, because it is a disembodied violence - one we do not need to empathise with. When we see Jerry acting out, we see it as an emotional response and can understand why he acted that why, despite our condemnation for his brutal and horrific act.

What must be done is to cease thinking of the state as a cold, calculating machine. The state apparatus must be humanized if it is to be understood and eventually destroyed.

We must make the state accountable for its actions and behaviours on an emotional level.