J. G. Ballard - BBC Profile

...if you watch only one JG Ballard video post of mine this summer...this should be the ONE.

WW II confirmed that the whole of reality was some sort of stage set that could be cleared away at a moments notice. I do tend to write a fiction of extreme situations, there's no point in denying that. But then, life on this planet for the most part is fairly extreme….the life I led during the Second World War was not untypical at all, in fact it was completely typical of the way most people on this planet have lived during the 20th century and in previous centuries…what is the untypical corner of the planet has been the sort of secure suburbia of England, Western Europe, and the United States.

I have a suspicion that some sort of institutionalized violence which we see in the violent contact sports like boxing, American Football, [Soccer Hooliganism] etc, are not "outlets" of violence but rather means of prompting and provoking it because we need to get that sort of violence into our systems because they are energizing and they do have a virtue because they sharpen the moral sense of ourselves….

You could make the point that in a way the great dream of the Enlightenment- of a sane and humane society, where we all respect each other is in a sense hopelessly idealistic and does not accord with our real natures. That we are a race of partly-civilized hunter killers who've adapted loosely to living in large enclaves. If we are going to be truthful about our real natures and that we are rather violent creatures who enjoy violence…it might be necessary to administer small doses of not just violence, but psychopathic behavior.