This week, Wisdom of Crowds hosts a fluid discussion about violence and sex in movies, where the “shoulds” of life come from, and whether liberal values can be based on something other than religion. The discussion is more meditative than contentious, an exploration prompted by recent pop culture hits and a probing comment from the Crowd.

Violence is entertaining. That’s the conclusion that Damir draws after watching the movie, Civil War, which he thoroughly enjoyed. Christine questions Damir about his taste for violent movies, and wonders whether we are slowly becoming numb to violence, just as we are — as recent studies suggest — becoming numb to sex in film. The discussion moves toward the question of values and where they come from, drawing from a recent reader comment that prompted some soul-searching in the Wisdom of Crowds masthead.

In the bonus section for paid subscribers, Damir asks Christine how she can overcome Nietzsche’s critique of Christianity and its values, while he launches into a defense of liberalism based on what he calls “mystery.” Finally, Damir explains why he believes that most moral truth claims “end up in tears.”

Required Reading (and Viewing):

* Civil War trailer (YouTube).

* Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga trailer (YouTube).

* The Mad Max movie franchise.

* “UCLA Study: Gen Z Wants Less Sex Onscreen, Prefers Platonic Relationships Depicted to Romantic Rollercoasters,” (IndieWire).

* The Hays Code.

* Lauren Bacall movie line (YouTube).

* The Big Lebowski: “Fight a stranger in the alps” (YouTube).

* “Why Give a Damn?” by Samuel Kimbriel (Wisdom of Crowds).

* Reader comment (Wisdom of Crowds).

* Rethinking Sex by Christine Emba.

* Friedrich Nietzsche (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).

This post is part of our collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Governance and Markets.