176 lines
7.1 KiB
Plaintext
176 lines
7.1 KiB
Plaintext
The following article is reprinted by permission from the
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opinion page of the Sunday, June 21, 1993 Orange County
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Register. Copyright (c) 1992 by J. Neil Schulman. All
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other rights reserved.
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TUBE SHOCKS
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by J. Neil Schulman
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What does watching TV make you do?
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Since we live in a violent society, we're constantly
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hearing arguments that seeing TV violence, particularly as
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kids, desensitizes us so we accept real violence more
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offhandedly -- maybe it even triggers real violence.
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But TV also shows lots of hugging. The standard plot
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for most family sitcoms is (1) Problem causes family
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members to get mad at one another; (2) Family members abuse
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each other in cute ways; (3) All is forgiven by end of show
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and everybody hugs.
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So television gives us a conflicting set of images:
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violence and hugging.
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Every popular medium has undergone the charge that it
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corrupts youth. The novel was attacked, then movies,
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radio, comics, rock and roll, and now TV, music videos, and
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rap. The theory behind the attacks is always the same: if
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Johnny commits a crime, he's not responsible and his
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parents are not responsible: Something Else is responsible.
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The problem in this society isn't the easy
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availability of drugs, or guns, or pornography, or
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television, although all are scapegoated. All are mere
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inanimate things: they do only what we have them do.
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All supposedly scientific studies on the subject of TV
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violence "causing" real violence are based on a theory of
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cause-and-effect that is contrary to humans having
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the capability of making responsible, moral choices.
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But we are volitional beings by nature: we choose what
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we do and what we make ourselves. You take two brothers
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from an identical lousy environment -- missing father,
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overworked mother, no money, rotten inner city
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neighborhood. One brother joins a gang and has committed
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his first murder within a couple of years. The other
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brother hides out from the gangs at the public library and
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learns to read out of boredom. Because of reading, he
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manages to stay in school and takes a fast-food job while
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attending night college.
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Even if you postulate a deterministic model
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of human behavior, comparing two specific phenomena in
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isolation tells us nothing useful. How can you isolate
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one specific set of television images from the effects of
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the other available images? Further, how do you go inside
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the skulls of the people doing acts of violence and find
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out the actual causes, when even asking won't give you a
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sure answer?
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Serial killer Ted Bundy claimed in a final death-row
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interview that reading pornography made him do it. But how
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did that screwed up psyche \know\ what was cause and what
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was effect? It's just as likely that the same impulses
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that attracted him to pornography attracted him to violent
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acts, and there was a third (prior) cause.
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Studies linking TV violence with real violence try to
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reduce human behavior to stimulus and effect. It may work
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with rat psychology, but it doesn't work with human
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psychology. We aren't robots which are programmed. We
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learn, choose what we focus upon, change our minds, ignore
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what we don't like or believe, focus on what we like and
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believe. If someone is prone to violence, then they will
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probably seek out and obtain violent images -- and if it
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isn't broadcast on TV, it will be sought and obtained
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otherwise.
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A mere statistical link between two phenomena -- TV
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and violence -- supposes a causal link which is unproven.
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It's just as likely that TV violence, by providing a
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catharsis to those who would otherwise commit real
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violence, prevents real violence.
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Furthermore, TV violence is almost always part of a
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morality play. When criminals initiate violence on TV,
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cops use violence to make sure they don't get away with it.
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If TV drives home any lesson, it's that using violence for
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criminal purposes will bring you to a violent end.
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It's even more probable -- given that TV is demand-
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driven -- that the increase in real violence is the cause
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of the increase of violence on TV. The more violence there
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is in real life, the more reason there is to portray it on
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news and other "non-fiction" programs, and the more demand
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there is from violence-interested individuals to see it
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portrayed.
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Showing that real violence causes TV violence is
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simple. But statistical correlations between any two
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particular phenomena, in the absence of a valid theory of
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human nature, prove so little that one could just as easily
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come up with a plausible-sounding theory of how hugging on
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TV sitcoms causes real violence.
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Try this on for size.
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Johnny is a latch-key kid whose father beat him every
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night before the age of five, then abandoned him and
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Johnny's mother. Johnny is left at home alone for hour
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upon hour, and watches TV. Johnny is fascinated by the TV
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sitcoms which show functional families. He watches them
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all: \Family Ties\, \The Cosby Show\, \Roseanne\, \Who's
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the Boss?\. Over and over again, young Johnny sees these
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families hugging each other.
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He watches these scenes of family hugging for years,
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and they have a cumulative effect. When Johnny is eleven-
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years-old, he's in a sporting goods store at a mall, when
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he sees a son hug his father, who has just bought the son a
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new baseball bat.
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Johnny goes over to the baseball bats, picks out a
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nice heavy one, then goes over to the son and smashes the
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bat into his head, fracturing his skull and instantly
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killing him.
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Now, what conclusions do we want to draw from this
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incident?
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1) Hugging on TV causes senseless violence, and the
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networks should be subject to greater regulation by the
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FCC.
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2) Baseball bats are dangerous and should require a
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fifteen-day waiting period and background check before they
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are sold, and they should never be allowed to be sold to
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minors.
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3) Johnny committed the act of violence because he was
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jealous that another boy had a father who loved him, which
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Johnny never had. The trigger for the incident of
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violence, and the particular tool Johnny used to commit it,
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are more or less random.
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This is the sort of question that might appear on your
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average test in verbal logic to get a job.
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But I wonder how many members of Congress, or
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sociologists, or journalists -- or lobbyists against
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pornography, rock videos, guns and TV violence -- could
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pass such a test?
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If there is any valid criticism of TV, it's the same
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one that can be brought against drugs: both can be
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distractions designed to dull the pain of living in a
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stupid, painful, and hope-destroying society. TV, not
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religion, is today's opiate of the masses.
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If you want to change TV, change the desire of the
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viewing public from distraction to intellectual
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stimulation.
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Or you can just change the channel.
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##
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J. Neil Schulman is a novelist and screenwriter. He lives in
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Los Angeles.
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