8mL

        8mL, or 8 milliliters, is around 0.4% of the amount of blood needed to be lost for an average human being to die of blood loss. 8mm, or 8 millimeters, is the length of film that old home video cameras were recorded on. 8MM is the name of a horror movie starring Nicholas Cage that tells a story about a man who investigates the snuff film industry. Videotape is the name of a short story that we read in class about the unintentional recording of a senseless and horrific murder.

        When reading Videotape, I couldn't help but be reminded of 8MM, and I don't think it's hard to see why. Both are stories focusing on people getting disturbingly enraptured in ordinary and under-dramatized recordings of brutal and violent murders. Looking even beyond the similar premises of each work, both stories also involve a husband who drags his wife into the disturbing tapes he's watching, a kid who was involved in the tape, and a person who can't seem to look away despite how terrible the videos are.

        However, there's one clear difference between each story, which is how the main character reacts to the video they watch. In Videotape, the narrator is just a bystander who simply watches the tape and doesn't do anything about the murder itself, whereas in 8MM, the main character decides to investigate the tape and goes down the rabbit hole of the snuff film industry. This dichotomy is reflective of the two ways people react to horrific actions in real life too. Some people choose to interfere in the atrocities they witness, perhaps out of revenge, or an attempt to prevent violence, or even to add more gasoline to the fire. However, most others choose to do nothing and just not get involved with the horrors, becoming bystanders who just watch the chaos unfold. There's a clear difference in how people respond to seeing the worst of humanity, both in the stories, and in real life.

        In real life, this contrasting reaction to watching horrific things has actually become even more clear nowadays, thanks to the advent of social media. Things like Israel vs Palestine, the horrors in North Korea, Russia vs Ukraine, China's suicide nets (if you don't know, don't look it up), etc. are all just recent examples of the horrors of humanity. And thanks to social media spreading videos and information about each of these horrific matters, all of them have become far more well-known than they would have otherwise. As such, the difference in how people react to them has also become far more well-known than it would've been otherwise. 

        I know it's a tense and heavily opinionated subject but look at Israel vs Palestine objectively for a second. A warzone thousands of miles away has suddenly become the talking point of a bunch of people who aren't being killed in the Middle East, don't come from the Middle East, don't know about the Middle East, don't want to go to the Middle East, don't care about the Middle East, and who probably didn't even know where Israel was at on a map 2 years ago. On the other hand, a bunch of people thousands of miles away do not care that their fellow human beings are being killed and are killing each other, and seem unaffected by the loss of life happening right in front of their eyes. The difference in reaction to atrocities has become more apparent than ever, and it's all because the internet has spread Israel vs Palestine over every social media site imaginable. The internet has simply made the horrors of humanity more accessible than ever before.

        A few generations ago, it was only really world officials and government leaders who knew about horrific things going on in other countries, allowing citizens to live cozy and safe lives in the borders of their own countries. Nowadays, with 24-hour news cycles and social media, the average citizen now has a lot of information about conflicts and horrors going on in other places. As such, it seems like there's been more violence and atrocities in modern times than ever before. In fact, a lot of studies report increases in people seeing violent actions on social media. However, none of this means there's more horrors nowadays, they're just more easily accessible to people who live away from them. An increase in viewing violence doesn't translate to an increase in violence itself.

        The horrific actions of humanity have always existed, we're just learning about them now. If anything, many of the terrible things we see on the Internet today are actually generous compared to things our ancestors did. Horrific atrocities like the Salem Witch Trials, the Armenian Genocide, the Rape of Nanking, literally any ancient Roman punishment (yet again, if you don't know, don't look it up), etc. are things so horrendous that they make the horrors we see nowadays look tame. The worst of humanity has always been present, it's just now being broadcast to everyone because of the Internet.

        Even looking beyond real-life horrors, as Videotape and 8MM show, the horrors of humanity can exist in even the most casual of places. Innocent or safe places like a family home video or a person's own backyard can be invaded by violence and horror. The worst actions of humanity don't need to be on a battlefield, or even be mass losses of life. Even just the murder of a single person is bone-chilling, and witnessing any loss of life is horrific and makes a person lock up in fear. Humanity's worst actions have always existed in all sorts of forms, including the fictional murder of a single person on an obscure snuff film.

        It doesn't matter if it's modern-day social media, ancient history, or fictional stories - atrocities and horrors have always existed. Whether it'd be a family home video turning into a senseless murder, a snuff film of a girl being beaten, a video of drone strikes in Ukraine, violence has always been recorded. People have always videotaped horrors and displayed them on their screens, nothing has changed there. There hasn't been a change or increase in violence itself, just a change in how we view it. Whether it'd be on 8mm of film or on a phone, 0.4% of a human is lost all the same.