Word: morbidities
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...Modernism was not only a vehicle for political protest or idealist reverie. It also became, for the first time, chic: it entered the salons and diffused through the decorative arts, especially in France. And it turned pompier, as in the morbid and overblown paintings of society artist Tamara de Lempicka. The birth of Art Deco is one of the themes of this show -- designers' homages to larger avant-garde ideas: a Cubist table lamp, for instance, or "skyscraper" furniture...
Some argue that our constant bombardment with these morbid images desensitizes us to the horror of death. They've got a point. As Stalin recognized, one death is a tragedy, but a million deaths is a statistic. The Gulf War annihilated more than 100,000 Iraqis, a tornado destroyed more than 100,000 Bangladeshis, and Americans barely seemed to care...
...social need is met by graphically showing justice being served in its most extreme form. Viewing an execution could repulse so many people that it might lead to a backlash against the death penalty. Or it could kindle a disquieting Dickensian excitement that appeals to society's most morbid instincts. Or, at a time of fear about rising lawlessness, televised executions might grimly satisfy the public's urge to see that society's most brutal criminals receive the full brunt of justice...
...debate over the death penalty is about more than deterrence, and so too is the debate over televising executions. Some crimes are so heinous that society thirsts for vengeance against the perpetrators. That base yet understandable desire, in addition to mere morbid curiosity, is what prompted thousands of spectators to turn out in Kentucky for the last public execution in America, the hanging of Rainey Bethea in 1936, and at other such spectacles throughout history...
Ross effectively used stage accessories to inject humor into the production. A refrigerator, wrapped in red ribbon, dropped out of the sky like a prize in some hellishly flamboyant game show. Unfortunately for the Duchess, this morbid gift from her brothers contained a man whom she believed was the murdered Antonio...