(Ir)religiosity

• Tweet
• Sharebar

• Tweet

Part I: Only Americans Matter
Part II: We Draw Our Circle too Small
Part III: Patriotic Fixations

Last time, I mentioned the problem of patriotism and its synonymic relationship to nationalism and ethnocentrism the by-product of which is the arrogance of American exceptionalism not to mention the sorrows of empire itself.

The final reason for this cult of indifference and triumphalism — at least when related to non-domestic acts violence in the manner I have for this series — may be perhaps the least obvious of the three and its influence, while subtle, is very damaging.  This phenomenon as less to do with media coverage and national pride and more to do with our unconscious reaction to violence in the globalized information age.

The reality is that we have become desensitized to violence in general have little to no reaction when faced with actual violence perpetrated in acts of war.
Think about this:  we all watch television, we all go to the movies, some of us play video games.  All of which throw unrealistic, stylized violence at us from every angle.  Most movies show at least some violence, others grotesque scenes of violence and murder.  Many television shows are based on a premise of redemptive violence and destruction.  Video games allow persons to role-play, virtually acting out acts of murder death and destruction.¹

We watch violence — and in our global economy I would argue that we participate in violence through almost every monetary action we make — in some way just about everyday via television and other visual media.

Violence has become an abstract and detached phenomenon.

Violence has become an abstract and detached phenomenon that we view as an outside party.  When bombarded with “media violence” long enough in this manner actual acts of violence elicit no real response or reaction because a) we’ve been desensitized after viewing so many unrealistic acts of violence and b) we have been conditioned to believe that violence is detached from reality, thus isn’t really “real” and it has no direct effect on us.

Even more interesting is the anatomy of “media violence.” We’re subjected to scenes of violence on television and then confronted with commercials of products we should consume — all on the same medium.  The implicit message is that the violence and the commercials are of roughly the same importance.  Even further because we’re faced with a high volume of fantasy “media violence” on the same medium from which we’re faced with real violence (e.g. the war Iraq) we make the unconscious cognitive assumption that both are of basically the same value and importance.  Of course we know they’re not.  One is a fictional story, the other dealing with real people and actual lives.  But because we view both from the same medium the message is very clear.  Our silence on such matters is deafening. 

As a result we have basically no reaction when faced with images of real violence.  Unless of course we happen to witness them in person, which in the case of Iraq we never do.  So, dying children in Iraq are reduced to the same importance and category as monsters smashed by Hellboy, the bad guys obliterated by Hancock, or the humiliated “loser” on American Gladiators.

I like going to a good action/superhero movie as much as the next person.  I really do.  I’ve played my share of violent videos games and I watch the occasional episode of CSI.  And sadly my initial reaction when faced with images of war and destruction in Iraq is basically the same — there is none.  Not until I stop and think about it.

We have been desensitized to violence in general and place all violence — both fiction and real — in the same category.  Both are of the same general importance to us as entertainment and we very both from a safe, detached vantage point.  The real has become abstract.  The very real person being murdered in Iraq has been reduced to basically the same value as the fictional person being murdered on Law and Order.

Mediums such as film and television can serve as powerful, prophetic truth-telling devices, but not when they perpetuate already existing feelings of indifference and tendencies to nationalism and ethnocentrism.

What business do we have placing American lives over the lives of others around the globe?  Further, what business do we have reducing the lives hundreds if not thousands of actual human beings to the same basic value and importance of the fictional lives of characters we view on television and at the movies?

1. This may seem that I am against violence in movies and television altogether.  Not necessarily.  The good think about film and television is that they can be outlets of truth telling.  We can be confronted with the stark reality of the world, which at times, can be very violent.  So I am not against violence on television/movies by principal. [↩]