In our society, the uncommon is normalized and the unique is
standardized. The unthinkable is integrated into everyday lives: it is
permitted, accepted, and even glorified.
A prime example of this social principle is our "compulsive fascination" with violence. Perhaps it is the fact that its intensity has the power to bring individuals from the realm of life to the cusp of death. Unfortunately, violence is an all-too-common occurrence that, despite its horrific nature, never fails to lure us into an eerie captivation. Though we condemn and decry it, we continue to secretly hunger for it. This obscure craving is what fuels media to persist and increase in the portrayal of violence, which essentially throws us all into a vicious cycle that remains yet unbroken.
Chet Raymo would advocate for this kind of obsession to be tempered with “a measure of restraint.” As he observes, our quest for scientific discovery reveals “what is best and worst” within us. Likewise, the exposure of violence is justified when it brings about an awareness of injustice and engenders sympathy for the victim that eventually catalyzes a reaction to end the oppression. However, the “other face” of it is that it makes the very viewers victims of an acute desensitization and repulsive fascination.
The media’s portrayal of violence and our constant beholding of it “demands…a judicious self-restraint.” Because though such videotapes are capable of “channel[ing a] path through time, [of] giv[ing] things a shape and a destiny,” that path is a dangerously benumbing one that is “hemmed with peril.”
A prime example of this social principle is our "compulsive fascination" with violence. Perhaps it is the fact that its intensity has the power to bring individuals from the realm of life to the cusp of death. Unfortunately, violence is an all-too-common occurrence that, despite its horrific nature, never fails to lure us into an eerie captivation. Though we condemn and decry it, we continue to secretly hunger for it. This obscure craving is what fuels media to persist and increase in the portrayal of violence, which essentially throws us all into a vicious cycle that remains yet unbroken.
Chet Raymo would advocate for this kind of obsession to be tempered with “a measure of restraint.” As he observes, our quest for scientific discovery reveals “what is best and worst” within us. Likewise, the exposure of violence is justified when it brings about an awareness of injustice and engenders sympathy for the victim that eventually catalyzes a reaction to end the oppression. However, the “other face” of it is that it makes the very viewers victims of an acute desensitization and repulsive fascination.
The media’s portrayal of violence and our constant beholding of it “demands…a judicious self-restraint.” Because though such videotapes are capable of “channel[ing a] path through time, [of] giv[ing] things a shape and a destiny,” that path is a dangerously benumbing one that is “hemmed with peril.”
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