Of Genes, Lawyers & Prime-time Ratings
Violence has always been considered bad, empathy and non-violence good. The Buddha, Gandhi, MLK all agreed on this aspect. Actually, I take that back...violence was actually considered appropriate in the context of the fight of Good against Evil. Take for example, in the text Bhagavat Gita (written 200 B.C.E), lord Krishna argues for the necessity of war and violence if it is to defend the “good” and fight “evil”.
While there could be various philosophical interpretations of what Krishna meant, the one thing that remains indisputable is that even Krishna never took lightly the destruction caused by violence. The destruction of the existing societal order, of relationships and that of life.
The prevailing school of thought primarily has Leaders of the world implore warring Nations to discuss their concerns and stop fighting. The Pope discusses the need for greater love in the world and organizations like Greenpeace plead for love for the world itself that we live in. Speak to any reasonable stranger, and the consensus behind non-violence is mostly rock solid.
Another school of thought attributes violence to a MAOA deficiency that's also known as the Brunner syndrome; a genetic mutation that ultimately results in a chemical imbalance in impacted individuals. This condition has been used by defendants in Courts of Law a few times.
The less often discussed school of thought is that of society's emotional desensitization to violence.
Sandy Hook was awful! We couldn't get ourselves talk about it without something heavy weighing down on us. 10 years down, we haven't forgotten either.
How many of the next 189 school shootings in the U.S. (that resulted in at least 1 fatality) since can you name? Uvalde, Parkland...
A simple Google search brings up background that to a certain degree, adequately characterizes the causal relationship between the environment we live and breathe in, to what we have become. Is it genetics, psychology or irresponsible journalism? Or, is it attention-chasing media capitalism?
I cross the Flight United 93 crash site on my way to college every few months - a stark reminder of the senselessness of some and the bravery of many.
Incidentally, I have also watched several Indian prime time soaps all produced by the icon of tv production in India, Ms. Ekta Kapoor. These widely popular tv shows have had a 'terrorist situation'
occur in the storyline - including twice in one show, within 2 months. And one, that despicably attempted humor with the purported terrorists seeking respect from fearless, chiding kids.
No Ms. Kapoor, terrorism-lite is not fodder you should feed 2 billion people in a country like India that has suffered from the scourge for over 50 years.
The channels playing these shows display warnings each time alcohol is shown being consumed on TV, but condone such representation of serious issues. Sad.
And we can't just single out Ms. Kapoor or Zee TV. Similar formulae have been used in U.S. and other global media programming for decades. Does it take creativity to be incorrect - yes. Not just politically incorrect, but plain, simple incorrect. It takes responsibility to understand the longer-term impacts of such short-sightedness.
While the 18-year study at the AnnenBerg Public Policy Center steered clear of indicating a causal relationship, the Center surely called out the strong correlation between media representation of violence and its incidence rate in real life.
Unrefined, simplistic definitions of desensitization from Google-based results:
"The more violence someone is exposed to (through watching TV, films, or by playing violent video games), the more acceptable aggressive behavior becomes."
"The reason for desensitization to violence in particular is our tendency to obviously adapt to trauma. The more we think that there was nothing that could be done to prevent a tragedy, the more immune we become to it when it repeatedly happens."
With probably the most important being:
"Unfortunately, at the moment there are no known solutions to the problem of real-life violence desensitization."
I don't seek a humorless society; I seek a society that gives benefit of doubt to all root causes of concern; genetic or pathological. A society that humors common sense and decency more than myopic capitalistic guardrails.
