Television Programs Encourage Violence
Television programs influence public life as much as literature, media and advertisements. As the number
of viewers is increasing every day, so are the people being swayed by the violence shown on the small screen. As life in this
technological age is becoming increasingly mechanical and dull, the children and the youth turn to television to provide them
with the exciting violence that engages their attention and provide temporary escape.
It is dangerous for children to learn the false lesson that violence is a way of life. The films and the TV serials
vie with each other to show more violence and horror in order to get more viewers and boost their popularity rating. After shedding its image of “idiot box”,
television has become a very powerful medium for information, entertainment and
instruction.
Apart
from violent films, various shows on violence like “Amazing Videos” “Who Dares Wins” and thrilling advertisements show risky adventures
as very heroic which often tempt the youngsters to imitate with disastrous consequences. Some immature boys broke their bones
by trying to float like “Spiderman” and others trying to follow “Batman” have been suffocated in underground sewerage. The television broadcasting
authorities often take a lenient view of such programs and dismiss them as light entertainment. But at home it is impossible
to control children’s TV watching in spite of their best intentions. Children
and adolescent of our age are too clever to be restricted by “child lock”; they can manipulate the gadgets better
than their elders. When we have direct telecast of either football or cricket, we get to see not only the skill of the players:
we are also forced to watch the players striking each other, using foul language and obscene gestures to their opponents.
Our young viewers learn to accept them as normal. Violent sports like boxing and wrestling (RAW) matches are shown which have
world wide viewers. As people keep watching the violent fights, they get gradually used to them; they become desensitized
against the power of these shocking incidents. The effect is seen in the aberrant behavior of the young generation: They stab
their friends to settle a score; they shoot at teachers and fellow students to give vent to their pent-up frustrations in
the school and college campuses. Bloody mayhem and lynching by mob are daily news with which we start our mornings.
The
box office hits of the most violent films of Schwarzenegger,
Stallone, Bruce Lee and James Bond are good indication which way our society is moving. As a result of watching the make-believe
violence and horrors of the Hollywood films, the real video footage of the collapse of Twin Towers
on 9/11 also seems to us as illusory as those make-believe destruction. The perpetrators of such mass destruction also learn
their new ideas and techniques of masterminding the genocide by watching the thrillers. With systematic brainwashing and constant
feeding on violent stuff, a section of youth has developed a sense of bravado in carrying out the most horrifying plans of
suicide bombing by Al Qaida and the Taliban. Watching a film like Stallone’s “The Specialist” must be helpful
in devising new devastating explosives. If we believe the biblical saying: “All they that take the sword, shall perish
with the sword.” (Mathew:26:52), the merchants of violence would have to pay a heavy price for the bloodbath they make.
If children are brought up to despise violence in everything, we could have a saner world tomorrow.
Films
on war are popular whether they are based on Hitler, Mussolini, Idi Amin, Churchill
or Saddam Hussain. They are then repeated on TV
to refresh our memory of war and titillate our innate pugnacity. Films on Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. are rarely
shown on the TV. The prevailing logic of the business world is simple: Violence and horror brings in plenty of money; therefore,
let’s have it as much as possible; we need not be bothered about the consequences. The threat of too much commercialism
has been hinted by Clive Barnes in New
York Times: “Television is the first truly democratic culture – the first culture available to everyone and entirely governed by what people want. The most terrifying thing is what people
do want.” (Merriam.410)
The
Bahmian Buddha’s statue in Afganisthan was shown on TV being blown to pieces by the Taliban rocket launchers, and the
whole world sat callously watching this work of art being demolished by the barbarians.
The philosophy of non-violence has few takers and is regarded as effeminate. Even our history books devote more pages to sing
the glory of conquerors and emperors who extended their kingdoms at the cost of millions of innocent civilians. But the futility
of violence has been echoed by Milton in Paradise Los, Bk.I: “Who overcomes/ By force, hath
overcome but half his foe.”(Merriam.435)
Even
the cartoon films like “Tom and Jerry” are based of fighting, smashing and revenge – though presented with
good humor. The science fictions and animation films have also high doses of violence in their plot. Action is nowadays associated
with fighting. But we should not forget Charlie Chaplin and “Mr Bean” as examples of healthy entertainment without
any association with violence. People have been conditioned to believe that sex and violence cannot be dissociated from entertainment
industry. Live broadcast of war between Israel and Palestine are shown on BBC and CNN without any indication of its end in sight. People with
sensibility and sense keep wondering if we really need such heavy doses of daily
violence as shown on the visual media. The war-mongers, however, are happy as
they get free publicity. Marshall McLuhan has reportedly said: “Television brought the brutality of war into the comfort
of the living. Vietnam was lost in the living room of America – not on the battlefields of Vietnam.”(Montreal Gazette)
The
violence of the unreal world is more dangerous than real violent incidents. The hero is a fictitious superman of rare brain and brawn. He can handle the most sophisticated gadgets with ease; he can bash a dozen of goons
single-handedly. He can fix problems with presence of mind; he can also dance and gamble like a pro. The youngsters become
fans of such fictional heroes and imitate them consciously or unconsciously. The evil effect of such hero-worship is often
reflected in the aggressive behavior of students like ragging in educational institutions.
It
is a worrisome trend that the new generations are growing up with the idea that violence is normal; it is every where –
in the streets, in sudden terror attacks, in schools, colleges and universities, and the live telecast of such macabre incidents
on TV is responsible for such impression. All the visual media emphasize the
theme of revenge so much that the impressionable mind of the children get the wrong notion that the only way to deal with
frustration is to have revenge. So we read horrifying reports of children shooting
at their friends in retaliation of real or imaginary wrongs. Personal depression and loneliness may be the root causes, but
the influence of the visual media do fan the flame of hatred and cause bloodbath. The sight of AK-56 and Rocket launchers
on the TV screen encourage children to playact their idols with toy guns and thus the seeds of violence are sown on their
innocent heart. A party which lobbied for strict gun control lost an election. So governments and the censorship authorities
often play the role of silent onlookers because of the strong industrial lobby which fund various political parties for election.
A section of adult viewers also enjoys violence on TV and cinema.
We
should stop to think “Do the movies on violence and horror really entertain us? Or is it because we have been addicted
to violence and horror to ward off our boredom? Violent action and chasing some person or a car can engage our attention,
but at the end of the day do our minds undergo some esthetic experience? In most cases of action films, it is just a passive
way of killing the time. It is high time we ask the million dollar question: Is violence
worth it? Women by and large show indifference
to violence by turning off the TV switch. But it is the children who matter most – particularly in the post 9/11 scenario.
Are they disgusted with the sights of violence and meaningless horror?
The
romanticization of war and fighting may inspire some brave and innocent youth to enroll for army to fight in distant lands.
But the experience of actual war in harsh climate and among unknown people who speak strange languages may turn them into
a cynical and bitter men. Then the inhuman treatment of the prisoners of war opens their eyes to new realities. Real patriotism
should come from within, not by any kind of propaganda about false heroism. What Bernard Shaw exposed in Arms and the Man is still valid today. War and violence have to be eliminated from the civilized world so that
poets like Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon may escape premature death and give
full expression to their talents.
Work Cited
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary of Quotations .Massachussetts. Merriam-Webster.2004
http://www.ridgenet.org/szaflik/tvrating.htm
http://www.abelard.org/tv/tv.php
http://www.cybercollege.com/violence.htm
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/jan-june07/fcc_5-02.html
Posted on: August 9,
2008
