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Nonsensical Desensitisation Sensationalism

That Makes Sense…

Penetration. Thrust at us from all directions, we cannot bypass this piercing perforation. Be it savage evisceration or venereal infiltration, we cannot escape this cultural condemnation. Makes you sick doesn't it? Not my inadvertent verse, but the poison plague that cloaks our culture. Sex and violence. It's in the games we play, the music we listen to, the shows we watch. The media's to blame you see. It's the reason this country's gone to the proverbial pooches. Sex and violence. Makes you sick doesn't it?

Actually, no. No it doesn't. Perhaps it should, but it doesn't. Permeating our TV listings and our radio-waves until we're at saturation point, we absorb so much sex and violence we don't even know it's there. A man could be strangled, seared, smothered and smouldered on my OLEDHD3D1080p screen and I'd still barely process his passing. Why? Because we've been ‘desensitised'. Dun, dun dun.

Over the last few days, the US Supreme Court has been presented with oral arguments regarding a proposed law pertaining to prohibitive sales of ‘excessively violent' video-games to minors in California. Earlier this year, cases were brought against the Federal Communications Commission by ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox Television regarding their standards of decency, and that they were "unconstitutionally vague". It seems that the media may be willing to comply with stricter limitations, but until these limitations are clearly defined, it's difficult to gauge how to censor media forms.

At the Supreme Court hearing, Justices questioned the oppositions definition of ‘deviant, violent video games'. "What's a deviant violent video game? As opposed to what? A normal violent video game? Some of the Grimm's fairy tales are quite grim, to tell you the truth…". How do we separate ‘normal violence' from ‘deviant violence'? Until we can successfully do this, we can't truly hope to control the publication and marketing of violent media forms, in a fair and cohesive manner.

Rambo has a body count of 236. 236 fathers, husbands and sons mercilessly slaughtered in the name of entertainment. In the split seconds it takes for a single .50-calibre bullet to leave Rambo's M2 and tear through the air until it rips the face off an approaching Burmese soldier and carelessly flings his facial features to the forest floor, in the moments in which his soul is snatched from him, in which his life is lost, it is in these very moments we must honour the sanctity of human life, and revere, respect, rememb – Stop! We don't have time to mourn! Rambo's gonna rip this guy's larynx clean out of his neck, check this shit out!

What would we do without this masturbatory malevolence? What's an entertaining alternative? Watch John Rambo solve the problems of theRepublic of the Union of Myanmar with a peace treaty and a nice chat? No thanks.

We've been ‘desensitised' because we play too many violent video games, we watch too much violence on TV. But can it really be avoided? No genre, no form is free from the things considered morbid, considered mature or taboo.

Growing up watching turtles with nunchakus and coyotes with high explosives, I was being ‘desensitised' from day one. What hope did I have of becoming a responsible citizen? I was probably ‘desensitised' before I finished nursery. Disney must have done their fair share of shocking too. From the callous nullification of Ursula in The Little Mermaid to the savage slaughter of the Hydra in Hercules.How can a child not become ‘desensitised' when his earliest memories are of the barbarous betrayal of Mufasa in The Lion King? How can a child not become ‘desensitised' when his earliest memories are of the merciless obliteration of mother deer in Bambi?

We're taught from an early age that death awaits us. We're told to get used to it. And we have.

The humble costume drama, despite a low reading on the Violent-o-meter, their sexual scale is through the roof. Lust is the driving force powering the period drama. Maybe I'm generalising here, but usually our heroine is involved in a tangled web of lies and deceit, forcing her to make outrageous decisions while she vies for the love of a man she can't have. Hormones are raging so hard I almost started ovulating myself. Why do you think it's called a period drama? Ain't 'cause of those old-fashioned dresses.

The British soap, a staple of British TV for decades. Millions tune in weekly, daily to view the latest happenings in Eastenders‘ Albert Square, in Coronation Street‘s Weatherfield. People of all ages watch soaps and I don't think anyone would ever describe them as violent, as morbid. However I've seen things happen in Albert Square and Weatherfield that I never saw in San Andreas or Vice City. Shootings and stabbings. Maniacs beat innocent women to death with crowbars and shovels. Crazies setting houses on fire. Lunatics ploughing themselves and their families into frozen lakes. And most of that was done by one man. Ricardo Diaz ain't a patch on Richard Hillman.

The soap psycho certainly isn't a common character occurred throughout reality, but he's out there somewhere. Because he exists, and let's face it, he's damn entertaining, he's scattered throughout television as a means to improve ratings. And it works. Sure, tuning into Gail and Audrey amusingly musing about how Gail had burned David's venison the night prior, the silly mare, sure it's nice and cosy. But wouldn't you rather Gail set fire to the kitchen and the whole of Weatherfield burned to ash in an impressive blaze? I would. But maybe I just don't like Gail. Hamster-faced bitch.

‘Desensitisation' cannot be attributed to the media of today. It's been an ongoing occurrence since the dawn of media, hell, the dawn of time. Disney deaths have been going since the late 1920s. Since the bygone era of the silent movie, since that first broad was tied to a traintrack by some sadomasochist with a moustache. Sex and violence has always existed, it always will, and until the Dystopian future inevitably arrives, it will continue to be portrayed in shocking, or rather not shocking ways.

Try as you might to evade this evil, but you cannot open a newspaper without being exposed to some degree of violence. Violence exists in the world and is therefore reflected in our culture. Yes, it exposes us to evil, but it's a necessary evil. An educational evil. Had Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket and Platoon never been made, would I know anything, anything at all about the Vietnam war? I think not.

As we ascend the ages, at what stage do we arrive at a generation who are not ‘desensitised'? What's the normal way to react to a grisly on-screen murder? Granted, if you laugh maniacally and take notes you may need some counselling, but are you ‘desensitised' if you don't look away? If you don't shriek and dive behind the sofa so hard you burrow into the ground?

40, 50, 60, 70, 80 years old. A reasonable assumption would be that the older you are, the less in touch you are with the cultures of today, with the films and musical tastes of the younger generations, and with the supposed increase in violence throughout the media. The older you are, the less ‘desensitised' you would be. But look at me: barely but a man. A fresh faced child. I have seen no conflict, felt no pain. Yet it is I who is ‘desensitised'? I've never fought in a war, never worked in a mine. I don't even pay taxes. You've seen more hardship than me, and the hardship you've experienced was real. My overexposure is not real. It's works of elaborate fiction wrapped up in an entertaining bow and placed at my feet.

At the rate we're going generations to come will be so damn ‘desensitised' that they can not only view the taking of life but do it themselves. And they'll need to. In 150 years time when the few remaining survivors are blindly staggering around the desolate ashlands that were once London, they're going to need to be able to look another man in the eye before plunging a shiv into his chest and relinquishing him of both his life and precious resources. It'll be a basic requirement of survival.

So if desensitisation is a genuine problem then I have a possible solution. Overexposure is our obstacle. A superabundance of sex and violence. What's the correct amount of exposure to sex and violence? This is what we must specify, monitor and control. Once over the age of 18, each citizen is issued with 20HP each week. Hit points are expended every time the user observes morbid sex or violence in any media form.

Depending on the gruesomeness of the scene, points are taken from your issued 20, and once you're out of points, it's no more dicks or deaths for you until the week passes, you've recuperated from your terrible ordeal and your points are replenished.

For example, if a couple were to fornicate, then the female were to stab the male a single time with a fork, because he moaned Beverly in the throes of passion, when his wife's name is and always has been; Vanessa, you'd get 3 points. That's pretty tame. If a woman were to be repeatedly raped by a centaur before being uppercutted into a spiked ceiling where her carcass slowly drained of all liquids, Mortal Kombatstyle, you'd receive 20 points. That's pretty extreme.

And if you disobey these rules in any way, you will be abruptly uppercutted into a spiked ceiling yourself. Or worse, into a vat of boiling acid where your foul flesh will be peeled from your tainted bones as your corrupt corpse slowly bobs above the surface of a lake of eternal impurity.

So we're ‘desensitized'. That's what we've been branded. I prefer simply tolerable. I can tolerate the odd decapitation, mutilation and strangulation because it's fictional stimulation. Rather beat a guy with a lead pipe onGrand Theft Auto than walk one of my Nintendogs, I have a real dog for that. It's called escapism people – and it's fun.

 

MacTingz

Article first published as I Sense Desensitisation on Technorati.

 

 

About the Author

I like writing things. I hope you like reading them. We'd make a great couple.

 

If you happen to have stumbled across my stuff completely by accident, you should most definitely read everything and tell all your friends. And if you navigated here completely by choice then I'd assume you've already told everyone you know of my unmitigated brilliance. Or not. Either way, I hope you're amused. I know I am.

 

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