Feline Musings

I do not get butterflies in my stomach, when I see a program on snakes on Discovery channel. There was a time when I would consciously flip channels, especially at night, because I didn’t want to watch slimy, slithering, fanged reptiles before I went to sleep. But now, I don’t squirm at reptilian sights on television because over the years, I have seen just too many programs on Discovery, National Geographic and the Animal Kingdom. It’s like reading too many Nancy Drew novels in adolescence. You slowly grow accustomed to the mystery lurking round the corner, and the thrill starts to wane and then you outgrow the teen-thrillers.

This also holds true for all things gory and disastrous. Photographs, the internet and the electronic media have virtually shoved not-so-pleasant sights right into our lives. From hovering in our range of vision, to finally assaulting our psyche, the daily dose of the violent, the bloody, the ill and the deprived, has virtually numbed our senses. There was a time when we would feel sad, or inspired to do our bit, even if in small measures, but now we don’t even empathize at the many sights of damage, destruction and violence. We look at our daily dose of violent news – mass graves, bombed quarters, road accidents, aggressive parents, and belligerent police – we look at it all, sigh and shake our head in dismay and then flip over to MTV where we are again fed doses of hostile “team-play” in action.

Even books and movies are selling only the dark-side of life. How many humorous and light books have been awarded in the past few years? If my memory isn’t too tarnished, I hardly can remember any. It’s the murky and the sad tales that get the accolades. I will take an example of the book – Life of Pi. While it’s a fantastic tale of an adolescent, left on the high seas to fend for himself, nearing the end, the book takes on vivid and brutal descriptions to wind up the story. Talking about awards and how pathos sells, our most recent example can encompass the Slumdog Millionaire - a pot-pourri of the gloomy world of slum children, and their survival.

Our senses are being assaulted with so much distressing news that we have slowly becoming accustomed to listening, watching, discussing and then walking away from taking any responsibility. The fact is that we have undergone the psychological process of desensitization, which states that continued exposure to media violence undermines feelings of concern, empathy, or sympathy that viewers might have toward victims of actual violence. Researchers have suggested that viewers become comfortable with violence that is initially anxiety provoking. Constant exposure to all forms of violence has given us a matter-of-fact approach to handling our anxieties and fears. How many of us will deny the fact, that we have non-chalantly snacked or had our dinner while watching live telecasts from sites of bomb explosions or similar traumatic episodes. Yes, it’s true that we are slowly losing the human touch, and the empathy that once made us social animals.

The worst affected our children and adolescents, with violent video games, animations and cartoons, internet access and 24-hours news channels. The danger lurks not only in getting desensitized but in slowly enjoying this violence, so as to become aggressive, reckless, mean and develop an approving attitude towards the use of violence to resolve conflicts. Infact, the sensitive and the malleable may perceive that the environment is mean and dangerous just because they have had an overdose of information on all the pain, malice, politics, and violence in the world. A significant rise in juvenile crime can be attributed to insecurity as well as insensitivity with regard to the pain and sadness that others may feel.

Inspite of the sudden spurt in the above mentioned tendencies, there is still hope, for if desensitization is a reality, so is resensitization. It is always possible to revert stimulated tendencies and reinstill good psychological health. As the saying goes – “It’s all in the mind!” We have to consciously deny ourselves the social carnage that our media unfailingly feeds us. And this includes all those television programs and media debates that involve bitchy competition and encourage coercion in the garb of sportsmanship. It involves choosing our books and our movies with great care, and refilling our leisure time with hobbies and interests that ideally do not involve a monitor or screen of any size. It’s about taking a u-turn before reaching the peak of this era of desensitization.

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