Psychological effect of the purge.

If your ex son-in-law decided to kill your daughter and grandchildren during the Purge so he could get out of paying alimony/child support is this movie seriously expecting us to believe that the next day you're going to be okay with it for the greater good? Also considering (at least it appears) the majority of crimes during the Purge seems to take place in poorer neighborhoods where people can't afford the high tech (although apparently useless) security systems we're expected to believe that people living in these areas are still going to be okay with being literal sacrificial lambs? I couldn't imagine a more fertile breeding ground for an actual class war. I guess that would make for a cliche story for a sequel however I think that would be ripping off The Hunger Games.

How is gleefully doing crime for one night really supposed to purge your entire system of all of its instinctive urges to do evil things?

One night isn't enough for a lot of people. It would be like trying to do everything at Disneyland in one day--one half-day at that (12 hours, right?).

You would find yourself getting all worked up, and then having to stop when the 12 hours ran out. It would be like a grand case of blue balls. It would be coitus interuptus, with you being left with the hugest emptiness ever inside you.

And that feeling of wanting more would linger. You wouldn't be purging the evil out of yourself. You would simply be bringing it up to the surface and probably finding it harder and harder to push it back down again afterward.

I believe that a people who were taught to indulge in their most vile natures would NOT simply turn it off when the 7am horns blared. They would keep going, throughout the year. I mean, if it's good for 12 hours, why wouldn't it still be good for 13? For a week? For a month? For all frickin' year?

Thus, there would be no cleanse or Purge at all. There would just be a mass corruption: a Putrefaction.

Embracing evil acts would do nothing to purge or cleanse ourselves of evil. It would only condition us to do it more often--not less.

The only way to truly improve our lot in life is to condition ourselves to suppress those evil drives within us. We have to actively and mindfully fight against doing evil--not willingly take it on.

Some can call that unhealthy, because we are effectively denying a very real part of our psyches in doing so. And that's the movie's official justification for The Purge.

But I think that our evil instincts can rightfully, and safely, be vented through movies, video games, boxing bags, etc. And by learning self-defense measures, so that when true evil does ever come our way, we can fully unleash all of the beast within us on that devil. "Purge" on that monster, who really deserves it!