Thoughts Concerning Media and Violence

My brain is overwhelmed right now, and I have to put it to page to sort it out. The thoughts are certainly not pleasant ones and are focused on, of course, the media focus on violence. Throughout history, power is displayed by the acquisition of technology (a.k.a resources). Back when the written word was only for a select few, the technology was used as a tool to control and display power. Land, I would argue is a technology as it is an extension of our ability to create life. Land was used to control and display power, as well. Weapons are an obvious display of power. Still, I was wondering this morning what is our tool of choice is in today's world. Twitter, Facebook, Blogger...social media is the language of today. I am curious if one looked at past instances of violence if a theme of power would arise. The technology of the time shows power. However, many are arguing media today is praising violence and this is causing widespread violent attacks. I am unsure if it is possible to prove without a doubt that media mirrors society or society mirrors media. The argument becomes a chicken or the egg discussion. Perhaps the issue is our apparent obsession with death and disaster. In general, we are drawn to disaster. When a car accident occurs, we slow down as we drive past, fixated on every detail of gore and glass. When a storm is approaching, we listen in for death counts and stories of destruction. I am not saying we are pleased by the incidents but we are certainly drawn by them. In some ways, I am reminded of Rome. Rome was captivated by blood and gore in the arena. How similar are we to that? I don't think we pop some popcorn and pull up our chairs in joy to hear about children being shot and incident after incident of death occurring. However, we are obsessed with each occurrence. Our media fixates on it. Our discussions revolve around it. We dissect, analyze, and critique. Perhaps, we fixate to accumulate information in hopes to prevent the same incident in our lives. As a culture, we are certainly obsessed with death. We want to beat it in every way possible. To us, death is an unnatural part of being. We avoid it and are afraid of it. I do wonder if this is because despite our continual attempts to name it to control it (thank you, Burke), death still beats us. We can only name what occurs before death. We can name what our bodies might do during the process of death. However, we cannot truly name and control anything after death or even what occurs right before death. Our only opportunity to grasp control and knowledge is when we ourselves are at our time of death.

I am sure I will have more thoughts but I just needed to put the rambling somewhere.