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Desensitized to Violence
Posted
4-20-2007
Watching the tragedy that took place at Virginia
Tech sort of makes the daily efforts of the spring election seem
rather mundane. While many of us were not touched directly by the
events, the severity of the senseless violence on what would
normally appear to be a peaceful campus in Blacksburg, Virginia
makes us all stop and wonder why.
I am not one to look at this from a gun ownership
viewpoint. I think people who focus on that aspect of this horrific
event are missing the point that the actions of the perpetrator
demonstrate some serious mental health issues, perhaps extreme
cultural and individual isolation, mixed in with a severe dose of
anger. And I am not professing to be a psychiatrist in making that
observation, rather someone that has been exposed to the media's
around the clock coverage and someone who has often pondered the
evolution of our American culture.
What this event really points to is that we live in
a country and a society so large, and so complex, that no one
(government, business, public health officials, or the media) really
can grasp or control where we are heading. I am not making this
statement to be an alarmist; I simply do not think any of us can
comprehend the size of a nation with 300 million people and how this
ever-changing culture is influenced by a variety of factors.
First and foremost, I think we have all been
desensitized to violence. How could we not be? I'll use someone my
age as an example. Growing up we saw countless killings on
television and the movies. As a child in the early 1960's we were
still fighting World War II on many television shows and in the
movies as we witnessed the killing of countless Germans and
Japanese. With the Western genre also popular back then, think how
many Indians and cowboys were killed before our eyes. Things only
got more graphic as we headed into the 1970's because special
effects for movies and television improved.
As time moved on into the video age younger
generations have been exposed to not only a greater level of
violence in television and movies, but also the whole new phenomenon
of video games. And one big difference is the repetitive nature of
video games. One may watch a television show or movies several
times, but violent video games can be repeated over and over. In our
communities, those fights that may have been settled with fists or
knives when we were young, are now too often frighteningly settle
with guns.
Do any of these observations explain the actions of
the killer in Blacksburg? I think it may in part reflect a serious
societal problem that may have influenced an individual with a bunch
of other issues. It seems the killer was a loner both socially on
campus and with others of his ethnic group. His writings in school
caused some faculty members enough concern they recognized he was
having serious challenges. Add together his individual problems
along with exposure to a variety of violent images and we all
witnessed the devastating consequences.
I must say that I totally oppose the amount of
notoriety this perpetrator has received. His name being plastered
all over the television is exactly what he wanted and if anything
encourages a copycat, the amount of publicity demonstrated on this
case will show some other mass murderer how to achieve fame. The
media, even with their insatiable urge to spew forth news should
agree among themselves to not give so much publicity to people who
commit such horrible deeds.
So where are we headed as a nation and a culture
that is growingly immune to mass killings. Maybe we are outraged for
a while when it happens here. But if the Virginia Tech murders are
measured against the daily news from Iraq, where many more people
are killed regularly we are not becoming less tolerant of violence
as we supposedly advance as a society. I wish I knew the answer why.
Perhaps it is simply human nature to accept the killing of one
another because certainly recorded history is rife with death and
destruction. In fact, in many ways it is even glorified if the cause
seems noble enough.
If it is human nature to accept the killing of our
own kind, the problems seem to be more severe now for one primary
reason, technology. That aspect has an adverse impact in several
ways. First of all the visual sensation for vulnerable people can
perhaps push them over the edge as they cannot separate fantasy from
reality. The acts of violence are often spread quickly by the media,
and the ability to inflict harm in huge numbers has been enhanced by
technology. The only viable path I see in a free society is that we
shield our children as much as possible from exposure to violence,
we severely punish violence in our communities, and we reject it as
public policies both domestically and internationally. And if we are
the planet's only remaining superpower, it is about time we lead by
positive example.
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