As Halloween approaches, I am reminded of the disturbing abyss between aesthetic infatutation and lived reality in our culture—a disconnect I find particularly unsettling in my second year living alone during this holiday. In a country fortified by abundance, there’s a readiness to make violence and gore a source of entertainment. But this “entertainment” only seems possible because of a shared, unspoken disconnection from the real, global experiences of suffering. It is this detachment, fostered by both our privileged sense of security and the aesthetics of abundance, that makes violent imagery laughable rather than traumatic. Yet, when exposed to the visceral visuals of wars or tragedies on social media, we’re forced to confront that what we often dismiss as fantasy is, in fact, someone else’s reality.
As the month of October picks up speed, steadily I see more and more homes compile decorations which mock violence, gore, and genuine disturbance.
A revealing instance of American dissociation from the realities of violence, apparent in its patterns of consumption via media, descor, and self expression. Paradoxically, it is a revealing truth to our and ancestral intimacy to violence, particulary those who exist generationally on this land. It is truly a waste of resources and an obliterating expression of leisure.
An aesthetic detachment that underlines the broader, commodified distortions of identity and experience in contemporary society.
In a country fortified by abundance, there’s a readiness to make violence and gore a source of entertainment. But this “entertainment” only seems possible because of a shared, unspoken disconnection from the real, global experiences of suffering. It is this detachment, fostered by both our privileged sense of security and the aesthetics of abundance, that makes violent imagery laughable rather than traumatic. Yet, when exposed to the visceral visuals of wars or tragedies on social media, we’re forced to confront that what we often dismiss as fantasy is, in fact, someone else’s reality.
For me, this cultural phenomenon raises critical ethical and philosophical questions: What are the implications of engaging with violence as mere entertainment? How do we, as a society, cultivate such a profound sense of “otherness” toward real suffering that we’re able to turn it into spectacle? There is a striking parallel between Halloween’s dark aesthetics and the commodification of identity itself. In both, we see a reduction of complex human experiences—pain, fear, survival—into objects for consumption. This reduction speaks to the fragility of reality as it is mediated through perception: a dynamic tension exists between how we perceive and what we choose to see, shaping our collective understanding of identity and existence.
In my philosophy research, I explore these concepts more broadly, examining the ways perception shapes identity and mediates reality. From my childhood experience with Grave of the Fireflies, an animated depiction of WWII’s horrors, to more recent footage from Palestine, my response has been consistent: an acute awareness that violence, even when mediated, is real. Our relationship to visual violence, whether in film or Halloween decorations, exposes our cultural dissociation—a coping mechanism perhaps, yet a deeply flawed one that feeds a warped understanding of reality.
This Halloween, I reflect on the cost of this dissociation. By reducing violence and suffering to mere aesthetics, we risk trivializing the ethical weight of real human experiences, replacing empathy with spectacle. When our consumption of visual violence is not tempered by understanding, we risk reinforcing a cultural numbness to the very real tragedies happening beyond our borders. I also offer opposing practices that honor the cycles of life, death, and ancestors to foster harmony Maori Matariki – New Zealand, Wiwanyag Wachipi (Sun Dance), Potlatch – Pacific Northwest Tribes, Navajo Nightway Ceremony, Samhain – Celtic Origins, Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) – Mexico and Central Americ
As we approach Halloween and collectively venture into year 2 of the most highly visible genoide of our time, I urge you to reconsider how you consume violence and introspectively consider the dissonance which exists in Hallween popularized practice in America. If gore, violence, and human disfiguration is something you find emblematic of entertainment because it is presented in the mode of film, decor, and puppetry I urge to sit with its real existence through accounts like @eye.on.palestine. You will see the decorations you find amusing in the figure of a person slain by bombs and warfare. Make the connection between war and America’s tradition of musing disturbing violence through the holiday of Halloween. Thank you.