A few nights ago I was ensconced in my Morris chair, sipping a red of unremarkable vintage. I was plowing my way through a dreadful periodical, but since it had come highly recommended I was determined to finish it. Thankfully the phone rang and it was a dear friend from my school days on the other end of the line. He was calling to catch up, we try to stay in touch a few times a year, and eventually the conversation got around to current events happening in his part of Terra Firma. Unfortunately the news was not good, violence and mayhem all around with lots of finger pointing and blame to go around with it. Our rambling ranged from the philosophical to the ridiculous (as is our nature), the topic of discussion eventually turned to more pleasant thoughts and after promising to visit in the near future as we so often do but never accomplish, we rang off.
I got to thinking about our conversation and to one aspect of it in particular and it was this. Every time a tragedy occurs such as a mass shooting, rioting, a police killing or other things of that nature, eventually the discourse turns to the roles that music, television, video games and media in general might play in these occurrences. The arguments range from "media is responsible" to "media has no effect whatsoever". The arguments have gotten so predictable and so entrenched that no serious discussion can really occur because it dissolves into name calling almost as quickly as it begins.
While pondering all of this, I was reminded of a Scripture verse that goes something like this:
"Your eye is the lamp of the body. When your eyes are healthy your body is filled with light. When your eyes are unhealthy your body is filled with darkness".
I'm paraphrasing of course because I've never been one to memorize as long as I've known where to look things up. Anyway, as I was reflecting on our earlier discussion with this verse serving as a backdrop, my mind once again traveled back to our days in school, this time while at college.
I was attending a lecture about advertising and more specifically subliminal advertising and it's effects on the mind. An example used to illustrate the point had to do with movies being shown at drive-ins and theaters. Contained in these movies were split second images of things like popcorn, soda, candy, etc., all things served at the snack bar. These images were apparently imperceptible to the conscious mind but not the unconscious, so that by the time intermission came around people were craving the items contained in the images. Snack bar sales were said to have increased as a result of this advertising. When it was discovered that this was going on, there was an uproar and people demanded that this be stopped. At least that was my recollection at the time and I don't recall if it was stopped or not, but that is beside the point.
The point I am bumbling my way to however, is that on the one hand we have an uproar about subliminal advertising and the effects it might have on people's behavior. Yet, on the other hand, we have those who would argue that perceptible media such as music, television, video games, etc, have no effect on those members of society who would choose to act out in criminal and violent ways. I find this to be a curious dichotomy. One only has to sample certain forms of today's media to see that it is not too far a stretch to imagine the effects that these might have on an improperly formed mind that is continually bombarded by said media.
But herein lies the problem. If anyone even dares to mention that media, in whatever form, could be playing a part in these behaviors, they get shouted down with slogans such as, "it's the parents fault" or "if you don't like it, don't watch", things of that nature and there are countless others. It would seem to me however, that if a parent is paying the going rate to have music or television delivered to their home then certainly they should have some say as to what it is that is being delivered instead of being told not to watch or listen to that which they are paying for.
But now I am getting away from where I intended, which as you know is a common fault of mine. Suffice it to say that after giving all of this some thought, I decided there wasn't much I was willing to do about it and ceased from thinking about it further except for this:
If our eyes are indeed the windows to our soul, then it might behoove us to take better care of what it is we expose them to, lest they see that which is unhealthy and allow darkness to creep in.
Having decided I had wasted enough time on complex thought for one night, I chucked my periodical into the trash, poured myself some more wine and let my mind wander to happier and simpler times.
Cheers,
Dogwood
