Acts of violence are detrimental when regarding its effects on human emotion. When exposed to too much violence, a person’s perception on society and even themselves begins to be altered. Nevertheless, just as violence can be disadvantageous to people, it can also be seen as an advantage as it causes citizens to realize that change needs to occur. In “Great to Watch,” the author, Maggie Nelson, discusses how society, especially Americans, have become desensitized to violence. Nelson also goes into depth to explain how society has become accustomed to violence due to the fact that people are exposed to it on a daily basis. In addition, Beth Loffreda discusses and explains the effects that a violent hate crime had on the town of Laramie, Wyoming …show more content…
Gladwell also talks about how the citizens of New York City viewed the incident and eventually combatted crime. Violence does not desensitize or effect the conscience of the people it affects, but rather it becomes a daily part of their lives. When citizens are exposed to violence every day, it becomes more of a habit of their environment and normal to them. It becomes so normal that the only way to create change is for a major type of violent act, that these citizens are not used to seeing, to occur for them to realize that change needs to occur. This is what causes the citizens to overlook violence and realize that change needs to happen, not because they become desensitized or have bad …show more content…
People might become accustomed by the violence going on around them in order to keep themselves sane and not paranoid, but that does not necessarily mean that they see it as being correct. Back to the Goetz incident, the citizens in New York might have seen Goetz as a hero. Some citizens of New York City would say that Goetz had “fulfilled the secret fantasy of every New Yorker who had ever been mugged or intimidated or assaulted…” (Gladwell 150). However, there is a massive difference between committing a crime and wanting to commit a crime. On certain occasions, people want to do something they cannot. These citizens might have wanted to do what Goetz did, but deep in their conscience these New Yorkers knew it was wrong. Although these New Yorkers were living in New York during a time where it’s violence epidemic reached an all time high their conscience did not get changed or altered because of the violence. Loffreda talks about a student, she talked to in which after “seeing students cry in one of his classes as they discussed Matt’s death, he had what he called, a real breakthrough: he felt a little sick, he told [Loffreda], that he had thought things about gays that the two killers had probably been thinking about Shepard” (Loffreda 248). Although this student, whose name was not used, might have not agreed or like LGBT people, deep down in his conscience he viewed that his
The community has a set behavior, good or bad, that is demanded of its citizens. Gladwell has an explanation of why this is so by saying that “the impetus to engage in a certain kind of behavior is not coming from a certain kind of person but from a feature of the environment” (152). The Citadel, which is the military college Faludi talks about, epitomizes this. Faludi explains a hidden pact in school: “The Citadel assures that any desire on the part of a cadet to speak out about the mounting violence will usually be squelched by the threat of ostracism and shame” (81). In this case, the environment, which is The Citadel, has a set behavior and anyone who comes within that community becomes stripped of their individuality, and also become a reflection of the “certain kind of behavior” that the community demands (Gladwell 152). Notice that there is no board of students or group of officers in charge of this; “The Citadel assures” it (81). It shows that the community as a whole wants to maintain the violence, and anybody against it would not be a part of that community. By applying Gladwell’s theory, it is seen that if someone wants to be a part of such a community they must accept the violence. This is a problem as, internally, this system will continue to thrive. More people in the community leads to more followers of the
Nate Londa's visual called “Silence the Violence” was created with the intent to effectively present the negative impact of the mass media on the youths’ psychological development. More specifically, Londa's visual makes a powerful statement against children and adolescents being exposed to the portrayal of violent acts in the mass media, e.g., television, movies, music, and video games. At first glance, the central image shows an infant being left alone to his or her own devices and being bombarded with destructive objects. Furthermore, the bareness in the background enhances the central image by not only demonstrating that the child has no one to prevent them from having access of, and exposure to violent imagery, but also the
Rory Miller once said, “The only defense against evil, violent people is good people who are more skilled at violence”. What he means by this is that everyone has a sense of violence in them, but some people choose not to express it, but under circumstances it’s a man eat man world. The prisoners in the book, Night by Elie Wiesel, were nice regular people before they were put in camps and at the beginning, but as time passed by they were being deprived of food and every human need, they started to change. They became more aggressive and violent. In certain situation people change, they will start worrying about themselves and only themselves.
Sissela Bok opens a controversial topic on violence as entertainment which explores the effect of the increasing of violence both in fiction and in real life. Not only do films, television shows, and video games evidence an escalating level of graphic violence, but daily news of war and other human brutality are as bad as well. As less time pass on doing physical activities and an increase in using electronic devices as increases, particularly by teens, there is growing concern about a possible link between violence viewing content and actual behavior. Bok draws a balanced image, naming some possible benefits from violence. One of the benefits could be the redirection of human physical and verbal aggression and the confrontation of fears in
This relates to Orr’s experience during the civil rights movement, when he witnesses an act of injustice. Orr shares “watching the scene, I felt murderous rage fill my whole being, geysering up in the single second it took to see what seemed about to happen. I became nothing but the impulse to scramble to my feet, grab the guard’s pistol before he knew what was happening, and shoot him as many times as possible. You would be their sudden and absolute target ” (222). Orr depicts his experience in a prison cell, as he watches a guard try to force a young boy to swallow a pin. He notices the injustice and begins to feel uncontrollable rage spread throughout him, his initial response is anger, not sorrow or pity. In a situation such as this, one can agree that Orr’s initial response is reasonable, that feeling “murderous rage” is acceptable because of the injustice he is witnessing. The rage he feels in that moment, leads him to thinking about acting out violently. When involved in a movement, it becomes difficult for emotions to be separated from the cause, especially when facing injustices because this often provokes rage and violence. But, in making amends, violence never helps the cause and should be avoided to advance forward because it uplifts more problems and suppresses the actual dilemma. Another form of violence occurred “In Newtown, Conn., where 26 people were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, hundreds of students at Newton High school gathered in a parking lot near the football field” (6). The main weapon used to engage in violence is the gun. This violence causes a staggering number of deaths and injuries throughout the world is needed. That’s why a strict gun control policy that would nearly abolish guns and make the world a safer place. Another big issue is children and teens getting hurt or killed with guns. ADD SOMETHING TO TRANSITION TO TALKING ABOUT
Society has been subjected to many violent acts over the course of its history. Although violence is immoral and wrong, somehow people everyday condone and commit violence for countless reasons. Many Hollywood films glorify mindless violence to their advantage and captivate audiences through its entertaining shock value and rake large box office profits. Car chases, crashes and glorified gladiator sword fights are all familiar scenes in which violence is portrayed in an unrealistic glamorised manner.
Another social aspect surrounding mass shootings in America is the over-sensationalism of these large-scale murders. Within minutes of the gunshots, news outlets are pumping out articles and notifications on people’s laptops and cellular devices. Within hours, articles with victims and suspects names are published worldwide. However, researchers are beginning to see a trend. As the media pumps out more and more coverage of mass shooting events, unfortunately, we’ve begun to see viewers become desensitized to the information. This is a form of adaptation. Humans will naturally adapt to their certain aspects of their environment once it becomes regular, cyclical, or over-produced. Humans have a threshold of how much new information they can retain. As viewers watch the new headlines of mass shootings erupt more frequently and more regularly, instead of being continuously shocked and horrified, we become desensitized and the information gets stored into our brains automatically and often without much grief or sorrow for the new massacre perpetrated that
Nowadays, Americans find violence entertaining. It is recorded, viewed, and shared constantly. In Don DeLillo’s short story, “Videotape” a young girl recorded a man that was shot while driving in a car; the video was shown on the news repetitively. The short story revolves around a man at home attentively watching the video; he continuously called on his wife to watch the video with him. This videotape represents how everyone is being desensitized to violence, how there is a growing obsession with violence, and how quickly life can be taken away.
"The world will remain as brutal as our level of desensitization to its brutality." (Unknown) Many humans in this world no longer feel shock or distress at scenes of cruelty, violence, or suffering as they are overexposed to such images. In other words, these people have become desensitized and display no empathy towards others. In the event that one is exposed to these types of surroundings on a regular basis they begin to adapt and become unaware of how heinous their actions actually are. Though not everyone partakes in these atrocious acts of violence, they are still in the wrong as they are simply bystanders watching the victims being abused. In essence desensitization causes humans to adapt, become callous to their surroundings, and become apathetic towards the others right to live.
(1).The problem is that in the last four decades, the government and the public health amassed an impressive body of evidence identifying the impact of media violence on children. Since 1969, when President [Lyndon] Johnson formed the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence, the body of data has effectively grown and grown and it leads to an unambiguous and virtually unanimous conclusion: media violence contributes to
A lot of the townspeople from Laramie were shocked that the criminals were from their own community. Many people were in denial that something like this could happen in their town, while others wanted to make the townspeople accountable. “My secret hope was that they were from somewhere else, that then of course you can create that distance: We don't grow children like that here. Well, it's pretty clear that we do grow children like that here” (Jacobus 1640). “it happened here...we need to own this crime. I feel. Everyone needs to own it...We ARE like this” (Jacobus 1645). The people of Laramie had once believed that they were a live-and-let-live kind of place and now they were beginning to doubt this. “live and let live. That is such crap...basically what it boils down to: if I don't tell you I'm a fag, you won’t beat the crap out of me. I mean, what's so great about that?” (Jacobus 1645). People were left in a state of confusion. Even the criminals “don’t seem to understand the reasons for their crime any better than anyone else” (Evans). Matthew Sheppard's attack influenced the attitudes of many people in Laramie and forced them to realize the truth of the attitudes of others in the community.
Violent Media is Good for Kids, by Gerald Jones; a persuasive article written by a comic book author that analyzes how exposing children to violent media has positive effects in shaping a person. This article was written as a counter-argument to the negative response media received after a horrific mass shooting that took place at a high school. Jones defends violent media by telling of his own personal experience with it, thus glorifying it in the process. Jones argues in his article that violent media is a helpful resource for children and it does not necessarily harm them. Jones’ argument was effective and very convincing. He defends his stance by continuously stating the positives that violent media has had not only on him, but his own son as well.
Hemingway's "The Killers" illustrates that unexplained violence is an integrated part of society. To acknowledge the cruelties of life is to come to terms with horrifying events that can not be denied. A person may lack the maturity to cope with everyday life if they do not realize that evil can exist in any given society.
In the book Critique of Violence ,author Walter describes Violence as "The intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, which either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, male development, or deprivation .The violence that is portrayed in the media has been debated for decades ,and it has rose a question about how does it influence the youth?. From movies to video games society has been accustom to seeing violence in their everyday entertainment. Since children are easy to be influence by their environment, it is safe to say that violence in the media can and will contribute to violent behavior.
According to Sr. Elizabeth Thoman, the Executive Director of the Center for Media Literacy in Los Angeles said, the public has produced fear generated by media violence. She calls this the "Mean World Syndrome," in which the impact may not be on potential perpetrators, but on the rest of the population, who begin to believe that violence is inevitable, that crime is everywhere and that they must be afraid. The projection of violence intensifies our views of the real world, making it seem worse than it really is. As the media increasingly reports the gory details of violent acts, the public becomes more immune. It may make the children more fearful as they come to believe that violence is as common in the real world as it is on television and as a direct result children may become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others.