Subconscious War and Violence

Media, reality and a culture of violence, this half hour video is a compressed version of 4 hours addressing violence in culture and how it may occupy our subconscious minds, affecting both our perception and perspectives.

The first part discusses the popularity, and potential effect of violence in video games, specifically Modern Warfare, where a scene is shown killing civilians in an airport. Now I am not suggesting violence in video games makes people violent. Do I personally wish our culture did not promote such? Yes, but hey, let freedom ring I suppose. I fear though that some get caught up in the dance between art imitating life and life imitating art, in that some become tolerant and accepting of violence as an inevitable part of life.

While I am not going to argue that these games "make" people be violent, but perhaps it hardens some, and makes them less empathetic to violence, even to their fellow countryman, thus not caring as much about efforts for war and destruction. I do worry that images are formed within our subconsciousness that may be a result of this type of exposure(promotion?) of violence.

Shouldn't the promotion of violence against our fellow citizens be as restricted as pedophilia, bestiality, or murder? All of which are not allowed to be freely distributed to the public.
I realize this issue alone could be debated endlessly, and that is not my wish here. Rather, I hope that this vid may instill within some's consciousness, pause for reflection about our current world and the violence inner meshed.

Another part of the vid reveals what sometimes happens to soldiers in war. Sometimes they are too shook up by what they do/witness, but apparently, and maybe some other service people can weigh in on this,"malingering" is frowned upon and could be considered criminal? The result for some is a bottling up of emotion, making them potentially volatile. I know war is hell, and S*%# happens in the heat of battle, the result is just sad and destructive imo.

In this vid, a comparison between Orwell's view in 1984 compared to Huxley's Brave New World.
Orwell:
Books will be banned, we would be deprived of information, truth would be held.
Huxley:
there will be no interest in books, we would have so much information we would be reduced to passivity and egoism, and truth would drown in a sea of irrelevance.

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions". In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.

A book is referenced called, Amusing Ourselves To Death by Neil Postman.
Here is a really good link to a comparison between the 2 perspectives www.highexistence.com...
Amusing ourselves to death.

This book is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right.
"It is possible to make people content with their servitude with endless amounts of distractions and propaganda that appeals to unconscious forces below the surface. People will come to love their oppression, to adore technologies and undo their capacity to think." Now this undoing is filled with violent tolerance, which is dangerous imo.
"Democracy is to prevent concentrated power in the hands of the few. There are impersonal devices for accelerating diminishing freedom."

Some quotes from the book:

“The scientific method," Thomas Henry Huxley once wrote, "is nothing but the normal working of the human mind." That is to say, when the mind is working; that is to say further, when it is engaged in corrrecting its mistakes.

Taking this point of view, we may conclude that science is not physics, biology, or chemistry--is not even a "subject"--but a moral imperative drawn from a larger narrative whose purpose is to give perspective, balance, and humility to learning.”
Are we using technology, or is it using us? The effect of the electric revolution is more invovlement. No longer do we have the same perspective as human to human, co prescence that comes with a certain sense of respeonsibility. WHreas on the internte, you can turn off the depth of connection, and get swept up in the enthusiasm of others caught up in the spectacle of new tech.

“When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby-talk, when, in short, a people become an audience, and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk; culture-death is a clear possibility.”

“Television is altering the meaning of 'being informed' by creating a species of information that might properly be called disinformation. Disinformation does not mean false information. It means misleading information - misplaced, irrelevant, fragmented or superficial information - information that creates the illusion of knowing something, but which in fact leads one away from knowing.”

More Quotes

"I appreciate your challenge for all of us to be critical of every form of media. We are a culture dependent on media for gratification, creating the illusion of experience on our psyche. Real knowledge is gained through experience. A film like this can only point towards something. What you got from this film comes with responsibility. "If we don't use our intelligence, on a daily basis, to wake up, strive to seek clarity & coherency, than all the other stuff is just neutralized." - John Trudell

"We are a culture dependent on media for gratification, creating the illusion of experience on our psyche. Real knowledge is gained through experience. A film like this can only point towards something. What you got from this film comes with responsibility. “If we don’t use our intelligence, on a daily basis, to wake up, strive to seek clarity & coherency, than all the other stuff is just neutralized.” – John Trudell

Marshall McLuhan ( click the 240(bottom right) version for audio)


In closing, I hope that this thread may serve, just as a vid game may, to fill the subconscious with alternative perspectives. I realize war and violence are a part of life, but to what degree and extent does it penetrate a society, and what are the lasting effects? How has technology disconnected from genuine reality?

Peace
spec

Please don't stop at the first 3rd of this vid, which discusses violence,war and video games. The remaining two thirds covers philosophical perspectives and examines the effect of technology on our societies. The comparison between Orwell and Huxley is what really stood out for me.
I also hope that the left/right arguments do not fall upon this, because war and violence affect us all.

Thanks,
spec

reply to post by speculativeoptimist


I will have to finish the vids later but i just wanted to thank you for authoring this thread. the subject is titilating to say the least. this is exactly what my fears are of this world. people are becoming so desensitized that they are allowing horrible horrible things to happen all around them.

reply to post by couldbeanyone

My pleasure cba, and I hope this gets more exposure. Troubling information such as this is often unpopular, but I think it is a critical issue in today's societies.

Peace,
spec