I wonder now and then about consequences. Can what we feed our minds effect our behavior and our choices? As I flip through channels and look for something uplifting to watch, I am amazed how many shows are about murder and mayhem. Television series abound about criminal behavior, public servants such as police personnel, clandestine agents, and similar subjects. In addition to these shows based on violent behavior and the supposed causes, consequences and techniques to “solve” cases, we now have shows about the “un-dead”, futuristic violence, and apocalyptic endings or near-endings. What is more perplexing to me is that these shows abound because enough people are watching them to make it profitable to air them.
I’m also fascinated by the quality of the unending news media coverage of everything from politics, jihadism, religion, violent crime, etc. It is no wonder that the American public is possibly more anxious than any other time in our history. We are inundated 24 hours a day with BAD news…bad, disdainful and slanted toward opposite-sides politics, bad news about violent crime, bad new about this and that and more bad news about something else. As the airwaves have opened up for more media, the media have found more ways to fill airspace with every piece of negative anything that they can find. And what is more perplexing is that all that bad news actually sells. We appear to like it.
What happens to our minds when they are filled with negativity every time we sit to watch something? What happens to our spirits when we are inundated with violence, negativity, hatefulness, and bias on a continual basis? As our society continues down a pathway of negativity and anxiety, how does all this affect us as human beings?
Another piece to this that I’m curious about is the notorious celebrity we attach to the people who perpetrate crimes and violent actions. Every time we advertise the face, the name, and the “reasons” behind the violence, we actually encourage others to seek that attention… Every time we splash the names of jihadists who are guilty of their crimes against us, we add to their martrydom, to their “celebrity.” We make them “famous” instead of making them nameless, faceless, pitiful examples of hatefulness. When we publish the names and faces of those who commit crimes, we give a certain satisfaction to the sick mind. In this media culture, it is too easy to confuse celebrity and fame with notoriety and infamy. We also help to spread the word about these organizations that recruit sick or marginalized individuals to join their causes.
With all of this barrage of negativity blaring at us 24/7, I wonder about the consequences. Is there a way to have an intelligent conversation about more responsible ways to report a happening without sensationalizing it, feeding into perpetrators need for recognition, and the human tendency to happily ingest all this negativity without so much as a thought?
Sometimes I don’t have the answers, but I have a lot of questions. Sometimes, I wish I could find others to talk with, to struggle with them, to listen to…there is much to ponder in life. And no one can find the answers in a vacuum…alone. All I know is this. The negativity barrage doesn’t fill me with anxiety. It makes me sad. We are better and bigger than this. But we’ve settled…for the ugliness.
Life is too precious…too sweet…I don’t want to settle anymore.