Brain usage determines effect of violence
by Chris Barnes, reporter

    During the past millennium plus two years, we have seen ground-breaking discoveries, technological advances beyond imagination and war.

   With war constantly entering our homes through a variety of media—television, Internet, newspaper and radio—one would believe we thrive on the negativity it creates. Such a constant barrage of death must take its toll at some point.

   As critics of violence on television fight for stricter regulations pertaining to the amount of bloodshed, it seems laughable that these so-called censors have simply ignored the news.

   If watching TV drains today’s youth of the social skills they need to be positive citizens later in life, then what does watching the news do to them?

   Everyday, we see the stories of Jihads (holy wars), suicide bombers, homicides, rapes, child molestation and domestic violence on the many newsbreaks throughout the day.

   But is news is somehow less damaging than fictitious characters wounded or killed on a sitcom or miniseries?

   Should the TV ratings system include coverage for reporting the news as well?

   When children watch the report of a 20-year-old female suicide bomber from the West Bank who exploded herself and others, what are they to think?

   I would much rather see the youth zoning out in front of Charlie’s Angels or any other film with theatrical violence where the good guys win. It is much easier to say to a child, “That is not real,” than to say, “She killed herself for God.” Each news station competes with the other, so whoever has the most shocking story of the day wins.

   Those of us who enjoy watching action, horror and murder movies are less likely to grow up and kill our co-workers than a Palestinian child who has been brainwashed since birth by his parents or community to hate Jews for a section of desert they have lived on since 1949 or, likewise, a child from the Jewish community taught to hate the Palestinians.

   With the airplay given to the war on terrorism, it would appear less likely for a young man in Florida to run an airplane into a 42-story Bank of America Plaza in Tampa. This action is a far greater stretch than a child to watch a cartoon and decide to strap an Acme rocket on his back and try the Wile E. Coyote maneuver.

   With violence in the newspapers, violence in the movies and violence on television how can our civilization continue to distinguish between good and bad?

   The answer is simple: we have brains and use them to calculate the severity of the punishments our civil society has established to deter criminals.

   I think we might actually be regressing when it comes to the punishment phase.

   The question of whether the news or even action films with hundreds of people dying and the hero getting a few scratches have a major role in youthful violence may never be completely answered by the critics.

   One thing is certain, many people still strive to outlaw the action, violence and the censored material they don’t want you to see. Yet the masses continue to refrain from mass murder at work or home.