The One

We live in a dark world. One in which senseless violence goes unchecked. And worse, one in which senseless blogs get created. Not a single day goes by without one stumbling across news of some mass murder or another, while perfunctorily glancing through the newspaper in the morning, to avoid senseless chores.

Fed up with the exaggerated violence in the newspapers, if one turns on the television, one is faced with a presenter in some godforsaken country or the other, who is standing in front of a building that has been crippled by some terrorist group’s bombing. You also see around ten policemen with “Hi Mom! I’m on TV!” expressions on their faces, offering their insights… sorry… PROFOUND insights. Such as “The explosion was very loud” and “The fire was very hot”. After fifteen minutes of this, the presenter reappears, and because he has nothing else to say, prattles on about how dangerous this is, and how he’s in the middle of it all. He finally signs off, promising “at least a hundred deaths, and a few more casualties”. Simply mind blowing.

One then begins to wonder about the cause for all this. From where does an Islami radical get the idea that suicide bombing a powerful nation would be fun? And from where do teachers get all those retarded questions in term papers from? After a few hours of pondering the topic, and many more of sleeping with one’s eyes open in tuition classes, one arrives at the concept of the media.

The average person spends 16% of his life in front of the idiot box. And another 4% staring listlessly at the screen, before realizing that it was not turned on. Plus, 44% of all statistics are made up in a single moment. And all this time “kid-friendly” programs are shown on screen, each with enough blood and gore to make even the most seasoned surgeon vomit.

One really can’t blame the station execs. They’re just catering to customer needs. Three things sell movies. Violence, sex, and Barney the purple dinosaur. Seeing as how Barney is now just another old stegosaur who is slowly becoming aware of the fact that disco is no longer in, and that puberty isn’t a country, and seeing as how India lacks the “talent” for the other, they opt for the easy way out. That’s why tonight’s main show on star is “Texas Chainsaw Massacre”.

Ergo, the violence on television. And with youngsters exposed to so much of it, they’re bound to grow up thinking it to be an accepted norm of life. And now, with so many movies with thieves as heroes, kids who in parallel universes would have aspired to be doctors, will no emulate their favourite dacoits, wearing perverse little masks and running around in too-tight shirts.

These kids grow up believing that the best way to get back at a friend for stealing his pencil is to tie each of his arms to two trucks facing in opposite directions, and start the ignition. Twisted indeed. They grow up believing that robbing a high-security bank is the perfect way to get the money needed to bribe their Maths teacher into giving them a passing grade.

Ten years from now, a whole generation of kids will have grown up watching the bloodthirsty antics of Karunakaran and his cohorts, as they kill babies in their sleep, and murder women and children in cold blood. And of course, all this is brought into your living room in the latest high-defenition format, courtesy your friendly neighbourhood TV station.

Having written what I’ve wriiten, I hope I’ve imposed on you the sheer improbablility of such things ever happening. Some Arab kid watches Pokemon, so he decides he’s going to be the one to bring Japan down, because they cancelled the show in its 6546516854^th episode? So he’ll live a life of vengeance that will end only when he plunges a knife into the left auricle of Japan’s Prime Minister, yelling “God save Pikachu”? Please. As a teen of my generation, I believe we’re better than that.

We’re mature enough to distinguish between reel life and real life. Blaming the violence of today on television and calling it “one of the evils of media” is just an attempt at pinning the blame on something solid.

Crimes were committed before TV was born. With the introduction of a set into every home, however, more people know about them, making the number seem greater. TV doesn’t cause these crimes, it merely magnifies them, and lets everyone know about them. Knowledge is power, and with this increased knowledge, we are better equipped to fight crime of the future.

Now, if you’ll excuse me “Barney: the true story of a stegosaur whose hot pants no longer fit (with mindless violence interspersed)” is about to start on Discovery. Ciao.

-=cyke=-

# posted by Akhil : 7:56 AM