The purpose of the information media, says Bill Maher, is to make what's important interesting, So what's the purpose of the entertainment
media? Watch the gruesome stunts on reality TV, the gross-outs and
humiliation that passes today for 'comedy', and the gut-wrenching fare
of cinematic dramas, war, action and horror films, and you could easily
conclude that its purpose is to make us numb, to desensitize us, so
that it takes more and more outrageous depictions to rouse any response
from us at all.
Yet there seems to be an appetite for this. Why would people want to
pay money to be shocked, appalled, and grossed out? I used to believe
that most people were just insensitive, and required more and more
stimulation to get their adrenaline going (which, for some reason, a
lot of people seem to like). But when I talk to the fans of this
'entertainment', it seems more as if they are too
sensitive, and that they are trying to inure themselves to the shocks
that they are finding too much to bear. Subjecting themselves to
horrific violence is like a self-imposed hazing, or a rite of passage,
or basic training, except that it is to equip them to be able to handle
the brutality of life rather than the brutality of university or
military duty. In some ways it seems to be the mental equivalent of
self-administered body piercings and tattoos.
What's going on here? Why, when we could be going to movies or plunking
down in front of the TV to laugh with people, to be charmed and
delighted by funny characters delivering clever lines, are we instead
going to laugh at people who
behave offensively, who act ridiculously, and who insult and demean
others? Why, when we could be uplifted by stories of courage and
indomitable human spirit, do we instead choose to see stories of
unimaginable brutality, anguish, relentless horror and suffering, often
without resolution or redemption? Why, rather than piquing our
imaginations with what they don't show, do today's popular films use
grisly hyper-realistic graphics and special effects that leave nothing
to the imagination? We're still coy about the depiction of sex in
films, so why are we so blatant and vulgar in the depiction of extreme
violence?
When I go to the movies I go to laugh, or to learn, or to be
transported by a good story. Perhaps that is a form of escapism, but it
is, I think, a healthy one, akin to the pre-cinematic experience of
going to see Shakespeare in the park, or a bedroom farce or mystery at
the local theatre. Modern 'entertainment' media productions, on the
other hand, seem to be driven by schadenfreude,
the desire to see someone else suffering more than we are, and more
akin to watching an execution, or a car accident, or a sensational
murder case in court, live. They say that, to the families of the
victim, watching the murderer's execution brings a kind of closure, of
relief. But what closure is there in watching the depictions of
strangers' suffering?
So I'm left to conclude that it's numbness we seek, to be so inured to
pain and the suffering of others that we feel nothing. When I imagine
the suffering of animals in factory farms and laboratories, of the
victims of spousal and child abuse, of child and slave labourers, of
wrongly-accused and political prisoners, of rape and abduction and
murder victims and their families, of those who struggle every day with
abject poverty or disease or looking after someone who can't look after
themselves, with no respite or hope that tomorrow will be better, I can
appreciate the desire to be numb, to be unable to feel. But that
feeling of anger and helplessness and frustration is not so pervasive
and all-consuming that I really want to give up feeling. For all the
misery and suffering in the world, life is still wonderful.
But perhaps that's because I'm 55 years old, and I have some hard-won
perspective. My future is pretty-well set. I'm not going to be around
to see the collapse of civilization, and may not even see the second
Great Depression. I have a pension waiting for me, and a nice home in a
great neighbourhood. I'm debt-free. Our kids are independent, happy and
well-adjusted. And I know how the world works, and how to cope with it.
If I were in my 20s or 30s, with the uncertainty of a 21st century
future still stretched out before me, and lots of debt and no security
and no experience, scratching at the bottom of the ladder to make a
living, perhaps I would want, at the end of a day of drudgery, at the
start of a life of dread, just to be numb, to feel less overwhelmed, to
feel less.
Perhaps, at the age of 55, the reason that I do not seek to be numb,
and to feel less, is that, in the process of getting to age 55, I
already have become numb, desensitized, unfeeling.
No more anaesthetic for me, thanks, Hollywood. I already gave. |
MADE IN CANADA
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